Her Eyes Were Green
by NotosK
Summary: Naruto is sick, the seal is breaking, The Demon Fox summons a human soul to break the seal and escape but Minato's protections kick in and stops it in time, With nowhere to go and Naruto in danger of dying. Harry is given a second chance to live... As Naruto's older sister Haruko Uzumaki.
1. Prologue

**Author Notes: This story was inspired by** _ **Araceli's**_ _ **Auryn**_ **(Go read it if you haven't, It is quite good)** **the only thing I'm taking from that fic is the fact that Harry gets transported to the Naruto universe into a female body, Harry won't become super powerful as fast as in** _ **Auryn.**_ **This is a** _ **gender switch**_ **story so if you don't like that, you've been warned.**

 **Also, English is not my first language** _ **and**_ **I don't have a BETA, so if you find a grammar error or a misspelled word leave me a comment and I'll try to fix it ASAP**

O=O=O=O

"Harry Potter, the boy who lived… has come to die." Voldemort hissed, Harry closed his eyes hoping this was the right choice, after all, the prophecy said ' _neither can live while the other survives'_. He was surprised when he realized how calm he felt, he was going to die, yet he just felt total serenity.

He felt as if he has been shouldering the entire world until now and he was going to take a rather long, and well-deserved nap.

 _I only wish I can have a better life next time._

" _Avada Kedavra!"_ Voldemort shouted and a green flash sprouted from his wand and Harry felt a sharp pain in both his chest and forehead and knew no more.

O=O=O=O

The door of a small and messy room slammed open revealing a ten-year-old boy, his face was flushed, his clothes were sopping wet, dripping muddy water on the soft-wood floor. He was breathing heavily and his eyes were half lidded. He stumbled in, using his left hand on the wall to support his weight, he closed the door with his foot, and walked to the small kitchen's sink reaching for a metallic cup and clumsily filled it with tap water and drank it, one, two, three times.

The boy staggered to the single bed, before he removed his white shirt and blue shorts. He let himself fall unceremoniously on the bed. His breathing was shallow as if the air around him didn't have enough oxygen, his head ached like if he was being stabbed with a kunai. _repeatedly_. he didn't know what was happening to him, but he knew it was something bad.

He was scared, _what if he died?_ There was no one who would take care of him. Because, for some reason, everyone hated him, everyone except the old man Hokage and old man Teuchi and Ayame, they were the only ones who gave a shit about him. But he couldn't burden the Hokage or Teuchi into taking care of an orphan. they surely had more important things to do.

He tried to breathe deeply with the uncertainty of whenever he was going to wake up again, he tried to sleep hoping that he was only tired and everything would be fine tomorrow.

"Gods, if I die, please— let me have a family in my next life." he whispered to the empty room, a red mist enveloped him as he lost consciousness.

O=O=O=O

In a large and dark room, with pipes running the walls and flooded in at least a two inches of water, a massivenine tailed fox snored behind bars made of iron. The gate was only held closed by a small paper strip with the kanji for _seal_ on it.

The walls shook and debris started to splash into the water, the Fox opened one big, red, slitted eye when the room shook again. This time a crack appeared on the opposing wall, he looked annoyed for a moment as he opened the other eye and stood up the world shook again and more debris splashed into the flooded floor.

His annoyance turned into a concern.

He pushed his red chakra out of the prision, trying to heal whatever was afflicting the vessel. If it died, so did he, _and he didn't want that_. He pushed and pushed but the world continued to shake. He started to feel fear for the first time in years. As he tried to come up with a plan to survive, the seal on the gate lessened just a tiny bit.

It wasn't as if he wanted to be jailed for the rest of eternity, clearly being free was preferable, but being jailed was preferable to being dead. But now, with the seal losing its strength, he saw an opportunity to be free.

He tried to will the brat into the seal but his mind was almost lost, he sat on his hind legs and brought his massive front paws together and made a complex series of seals with surprising grace.

"Soul Call of the Demonic Path!" The nine-tails growled, the sound reverberating into the shaking sewer as more and more debris fell into the ground.

A small point appeared in front of the fox and started to grow more and more until it became a floating ethereal sphere of gold and red sparkles, there was a black spot in the sphere that seemed to suck in the little light of the room, it was surrounded by a bright golden-pink ring that seemed to keep it in place, but The Fox paid no mind to it.

The Fox started to whisper to the ethereal sphere.

"Rip it off" the sphere twitched

"Rip it off and set _us_ free" the sphere turned, the Fox thought, to _look_ at him.

"Break the seal" the sphere floated to the iron bars where the seal was barely being held; almost half of it was dangling from the metal, a long ribbon started to grow out of the sphere, it was made of the same red and gold sparkles the orb was made of. The ribbon coiled and around the thin paper strip.

"Yes, just rip it off and _I_ will be free!" the sphere turned around as if looking at the demon fox and tilted slightly to the right

"JUST RIP IT OFF, BREAK IT, DESTROY THAT DAMN SEAL!" the sphere twitched and started to pull on the seal, the fox grinned showing a row of very sharp, very large fangs. But in that moment a human hand grabbed the ribbon and the sphere let go the paper strip.

"Stop." The blond and tall man commanded and the sphere did so, the blond man looked at it and tilted his head. "What is this?"

"YOU!" the demon fox lunged and tried to claw the blond man, the bars of the jail made his massive paw stop just a few inches from his target, the man looked at the paw with rather unimpressed expression. The demon fox let out a rage filled snarl. He tried to pounce again with his other paw but the result was the same. The man let out a sigh. The world shook again, this time stronger than the last. The blond man frowned

"What is happening?"

The demon fox grinned again in a way that made the blond man uncomfortable

"He is dying," the demon enjoyed the look of the terror on the man

"N-No that's impossible." said the man as he absentmindedly stuck the thin paper again onto the gate. The demon frowned and let out a growl.

"We are going to die." the demon said

"I'm already dead," the man responded in that moment the sphere let out a low chime, the blond man looked at it again "I know you don't want to die, and there is no way in hell I'm breaking that seal, and you know I don't want _him_ to die, so for the time being let's work together… what do you think?" the demon fox let out a growl and crossed his paws in front of him "Right, what is this?"

"A human soul, I needed someone to break the seal because I couldn't get the brat's consciousness to do it" the blond man frowned

"You mean this is a human soul?" the blond man looked again at the sphere and noted the black spot and the golden ring. _A human soul if he could… it was a crazy idea but the hardest part was already done by the demon fox._

"Isn't that exactly what I said? You fucking dumb monkey"

"Can you try to delay whatever is killing my son? I have a plan but I need as much time as I can get, the demon fox huffed and a stream of red chakra started to seep through the jail's bars.

The blond man made a hand seal, a loud sound preceded a cloud of white smoke, and as it dissipated a pretty redheaded woman appeared in front of him, her eyes widened as she saw him.

"Mi— Minato?" she reached and hugged her husband "What's happening?" she pulled away and looked around as the world around her shook.

"Not much time to explain, Naruto is sick and the Kyuubi can't heal him, he is dying" the woman eyes widened as they filled with tears "I have a plan" Minato pulled the soul and the woman finally looked at it

"Is that—?" her eyes widened

"Yes." his voice was grave knowing what he was asking his wife. "There is no other option" the woman nodded and they got to work.

O=O=O=O

It had been several hours since they had started working on the soul, they had decided on the appearance of the physical vessel as the same of Naruto's Sexy Jutsu. Thanks to Naruto's constant use, it was the easiest way to mold the chakra needed for the physical vessel. Plus there was no time to find the soul's original appearance.

"About this black spot…" Kushina said

"It's troubling," Minato answered. "I can feel the evil chakra emanating from it but also a deep knowledge, maybe it's something like the demon fox's yang." Minato looked at his wife with a troubled expression "I wish I had more time." he looked at the demon fox who was visibly panting "If we leave things as they are it's possible that the golden ring will keep it at bay, but if it ever fails it may put Naruto's life at risk"

"If she becomes Naruto's sister…" Kushina frowned, Minato procured a small brush and a strip of paper and drew the Kanji for _'seal'_ , and then he drew the kanji for ' _path'_ and the one for ' _knowledge'_. A hand seal later the paper strip burned, a blue and yellow ring appeared inside the golden ring keeping the black spot at bay.

"Everything is ready," said Minato as he started a series of complex hand seals

"Wait!" Kushina said and Minato stopped, she touched the soul and a warm feeling seeped through her body "We know we are being unreasonable, forcing you into a role you may not want, maybe you just wanted to go to the other side and meet with your family and loved ones" tears started to pool on her eyes as Minato looked at her "Naruto, my son, he needs someone to take care of him but more than that he needs someone to love him and tell him that everything will be all right" she let out a small sob "We were supposed to be the ones doing that, but we had to sacrifice ourselves to save his life and the life of thousands of people" now her tears were flowing without shame, and Minato's eyes became watery "We were forced to seal the demon fox inside him" she fell to her knees and bowed so low that her head touched the water on the ground. "Please take care of Naruto!"

Minato also fell into his knees mimicking his wife "Please take care of Naruto!" they both felt the low light the soul emanated increase as they looked up the sparks were moving faster than before. The soul bobbed up and down once as if nodding. Both Kushina and Minato smiled and stood up. The world shook and Minato's face became grave.

"Ying Release: Soul Vessel!" Both Minato and Kushina wavered as if they were reflections in disturbed water, then an instant later, they weren't there anymore, in their place two small orbs one blue and the other violet fused into the larger red and gold soul, leaving two smudges of the same color, the soul shook and started to stretch, then it shot through the roof leaving behind a tired nine-tails.

O=O=O=O

In the messy room, Naruto shook violently on his bed, thick red chakra enveloping him, from the cloak a small strand of the red energy started to drip onto the floor forming a puddle. Over time and little by little the pool grew until it started to take a roughly human form. The blood red human blob solidified from one moment to the next, then, the next second a blond girl was in its place.

She was naked, her face looked vaguely like Naruto's Sexy Jutsu, with the same whisker birthmarks, but she was a little bit thinner and her nose was smaller, her eyes were rounder, she looked more like Minato than Kushina, but she had facial features of both, her skin was deathly pale and she wasn't breathing. It made her look like a fresh corpse.

Then she gasped for air and color returned to her body.

 _His body ached terribly and he felt nauseous, he probably would have thrown up if he had anything in his stomach. He crawled on the floor, his eyes closed patting the floor as if looking for something._

"Oh! right!" She said her voice hoarse for the lack of use

She opened her eyes.

Her eyes were green.


	2. Spring

He couldn't feel his own body, he couldn't see or feel anything for that matter, had the spell, jutsu or whatever they called it, failed? He hoped that wasn't the case, he didn't want to go back to hell or whatever he was before; with the huge demon fox. Minato and Kushina wanted him to take care of their son. Which they didn't want him to die; so Harry supposed the boy was alive; meaning they were offering him to make him alive again. They really didn't need to beg, as soon as he understood that his other option was to be destroyed by the death of their son and literally be swallowed by the nothingness, he had already decided to help them.

"Thank you, Harry Potter," said the female voice of Kushina

 _Uh? How can I hear you?_

"We imprinted our chakra into your soul," Said the gruff voice of Minato "we can give you our knowledge of the ninja world."

"You will need it if you want to live with Naruto and take care of him. Our world is way different from yours"

 _Right, so will I be hearing your voices for the rest of my life?_

"Once our chakra is spent we won't be able to talk to you anymore."Said Minato

"This is what you'll need to do in order be accepted as Naruto's sister…"

 _Did you say, sister!?_

O=O=O=O

Harry's body felt as if he had spent a week under the cruciatus curse, everything ached even places that shouldn't, he rolled over and started to look for his glasses patting the soft wood floor until he realized that he probably didn't bring them with him.

"Oh, right" he said with a hoarse yet feminine voice, he opened his eyes and saw a small room, maybe twelve by twelve feet, the soft wooden floor was littered with dirty clothes, empty instant noodle cups, books and rolled out scrolls, beside him was a bed and in it a small blond boy drenched in sweat and breathing rather heavily. _So this is Naruto? He looks like Minato._

Harry stood up and touched Naruto's forehead, he was burning, _what the hell!,_ he looked around and retrieved a cloth from the kitchen, a bowl of water and some ice from the small fridge and started to apply cold compresses to Naruto's forehead.

He felt a chill and realized he was naked; and his body was female, _I should feel more shocked by this,_ Kushina had already explained that they didn't have the time to retrieve his original form from his memories and the easiest way to create a proper vessel for his soul was something Naruto was familiar with. So it was either Naruto's Sexy Jutsu form or just a plain clone of Naruto. Minato and Kushina settled for the sexy jutsu as it was easier to explain an older sister than a long lost twin. Still, Harry didn't know how to feel about that, and right now he had more pressing matters.

He removed the warm cloth from Naruto's forehead, wrung out the water and dipped it again in the cold water bowl and applied it again. Naruto respiration had steadied a little bit, and Harry not feeling conformable being naked in a stranger's house went to Naruto's closet, he hoped there was something he could use, he found a bathrobe that probably was way too big for Naruto, but fit him rather tightly especially in the chest area. _Damn this kid had a good imagination for a ten years old_.

Harry walked to the kitchen opened the fridge looking for something to make food. Unfortunately, the fridge was empty, so he looked in the cupboard and found a bag of rice, he turned the stove and started to prepare porridge, remembering how aunt Petunia once made him make it for Dudley who had caught a cold.

"Let's see— you rinse the rice in water and then…" his memory was fuzzy and it had been long since he had cooked anything the Muggle way, he wished he had his wand.

He heard Naruto groan, he went to his side and changed the cloth. The boy looked so small and weak his complexion was flushed and his breathing was shallow, but his fever was decreasing, soon he would be ready to eat something. Harry walked to the kitchen but tripped on something and went face first into the soft wood floor.

"Bloody hell!" _damn, kid, clean your room!_ He stood rubbing the pain from his nose, and looked at Naruto who was still breathing slowly, he sighed and started to pick up the trash.

O=O=O=O

An hour later the rice porridge was ready and the room was clean, or at least cleaner than before, Harry had put two big plastic bags full of trash next to the door not wanting to go outside. He served a plate of the sticky white porridge and set it on Naruto beside table he grabbed a chair and sat beside Naruto changing the warm cloth.

This kid needed medicine, he wondered if this world had anything like the muggle world's convenience stores or the magical world's Diagon Alley. Then he realized he knew that some stores that sold medicine were open twenty-four hours… he knew exactly where in Konoha one such store was… or at least where it was ten years ago. He wasn't sure if this knowledge was from Minato or Kushina.

Still going out was out of the question. He wasn't sure if Naruto had ANBU watch, it was better to avoid attracting unwanted attention if he wanted to be able to live with him and not get sent to Ibiki. Harry shuddered at what the man would do to him if his story wasn't perfect. He had to follow Minato's and Kushina's plan, so first, he had to heal Naruto.

He went back to Naruto's closet and started rummaging until he finally found a cotton bed sheet… It was pink with white petal print, not exactly Harry's favorite color or designbut it would do until he could find something less _girly_ , he took a pair of scissors, a sewing needle and a white cotton thread from a cupboard. Thank Merlin Naruto had the tools he needed to make a simple cotton Yukata, and that he had the knowledge from Kushina who was taught by Mito-san.

About an hour later Harry was dressed in a pink flowery yukata, the cotton fabric reached down to his ankles, he had also taken a roll of bandages to bind his breasts, while they weren't humongous they sure were eye-catching and Harry needed to go unnoticed while going outside.

He had considered making some wooden sandals but he didn't have the materials necessary and he wasn't sure this body will be able to walk long distances with such cumbersome footwear, he had the luck to find a pair of toeless sandals that fit him just right. It seemed that a lot of the things that Naruto had in his closet where second hand, as many didn't seem to fit him just yet.

Just as he was finishing tying his long and blond hair in a plain ponytail he heard Naruto moan as he tried to sit on the bed. Harry was by his side in an instant and gently but firmly pushed him down. Naruto's eyes went wide. Harry smiled at him.

"You still need to rest." he removed the damp warm cloth and put a hand on his forehead, his fever was going down, Harry took the warm porridge plate and put a spoonful in front of his face, he wrinkled his nose at it, that reaction made Harry grin.

"Who— who are you?" Harry looked at the boy and tilted his head to the left

"Who do you think I am?" Naruto contemplated the question for a moment his eyes looked at Harry's blond hair, then on the porridge plate and then on the clean room. His eyes went wide with realization and watered a bit

"M-Mom?" Harry smile waned a bit and he felt a little bit sad for the boy

"No— I am your older sister—" Naruto's reaction was priceless, his eyes widened even more and his mouth was hanging open, Harry couldn't avoid snorting a bit making the blond boy snap his mouth shut and frown at him.

"My name is Haruko Uzumaki, back home everyone called me Haru."

"Haru? are you really my sister?" Harry nodded, and Naruto frowned as he bit his lip "Then, why didn't you live with me from the beginning?" Naruto said, his voice quavering with resentment. Harry's smile faded completely this time as he looked at the boy. He knew exactly how he felt.

"I'm— I'm sorry, I didn't know I had a little brother until a few months ago, mom… I mean my stepmom, Hanako, never told me she wasn't my real mom, two months ago I found a letter to Hanako from mom, our mom, it explained everything, mom and dad had me before they were married, they were young and didn't want me to become…" Harry hesitated for a moment; thinking it wasn't a good idea tell Naruto about the demon fox sealed in him "…a ninja, so they sent me with one of our mom's friends in the Land of Water. When mom died, Hanako-san decided to raise me as her own" Naruto was captivated by the story, hanging on every word Harry was saying "But I always knew that I was different. So when I found out I had a brother I couldn't help but come and see you" Harry grinned and Naruto smiled but he quickly steadied his features.

"How did you find me?" Naruto asked

"Well, the letter mom sent said you lived in Konoha" Harry paused "so I set my way here, unfortunately on the last village my money bag was stolen, I couldn't pay the inn I was staying at and the manager kicked me out I had to make my way here butt naked." Harry blushed a bit and rubbed the back of his neck with his left hand smiling sheepishly at him, "I hope you don't mind a I took your pink blanket to make a yukata" Naruto looked at him and his mouth twitched a bit "I had to sneak in, and when I finally found this place I knocked the door, but nobody answered, I felt someone was inside, maybe I felt your chakra, so I came in and you were burning in fever" Harry gave him a tentative smile and Naruto answered with a toothy grin.

"So you are really my sister?"

"Naruto, look at my face, how can I not be you sister?" Harry was referring to his whisker-like birthmarks, Harry took the porridge again and put a spoonful of it in front of Naruto "Now if you want to get better, eat this." Naruto wrinkled his nose but still opened his mouth "this will make you feel better" after that, Harry fed Naruto the plate of porridge, Naruto fell asleep shortly after and Harry set to clean the dishes.

Harry was exhausted, and as Naruto was already out of danger he laid beside him, it didn't take much time before he fell asleep.

O=O=O=O

Naruto's pillow was surprisingly warm, soft, and big? He was hugging a warm and squishy pillow and it was breathing. It smelled of flowers and rice. Naruto opened his eyes and all he saw was pink. He was hugging a cute girl that looked a lot like his Sexy Jutsu, she was wearing a pink yukata and had her blond hair in a tight ponytail. She also was sleeping with her mouth open and drool was dripping from her mouth, a small puddle forming on the white bed sheet. Naruto couldn't help but start laughing which woke her up, she opened her eyes and rubbed them and then cleaned her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Naruto?" she said sleepily, ah yes, the girl was his sister, Naruto felt a warm feeling inside his chest "Are you feeling better?" Naruto may be dumb as a rock but he knew by the way she asked that she was truly worried about him, she _really_ did care.

Naruto realized that he did indeed feel better, he grinned at the girl who had already stood up

"Yeah!" he jumped from the bed and blushed when he realized he was only wearing his underwear. He quickly grabbed his blue pants and white tee-shirt and put them on as Haru had her back turned to him when she turned around Naruto finally was able to take a good look at her.

The first thing Naruto noted was that she was extremely pretty, her blond hair which was tied in a ponytail was the same shade of blond as his own. Her eyes were big and had the same shape as his, but they were a deep green instead of blue. Her skin had a slight tan. She certainly looked like his Sexy Jutsu but her chest was smaller. The way she wore her pink yukata made her feel like a meek person.

"How old are you?" Naruto asked before he could stop himself

"Eh… I'm fifteen" she was rummaging through the cupboard "Don't you have anything to prepare food!?" Naruto face went a bit warm as he rubbed the back of his head

"Nah, most of the time I eat ramen at Ichiraku's" Haru sighed and closed the cupboard.

"There are some rice and soy sauce, that will have to do until we can buy groceries" Naruto was a bit confused "And I need to get a job… wait … Naruto do you live alone?"

"Yep since I was five" Haru frowned

"How do you pay rent or buy food?" Haru started preparing white rice on the stove

"Well, I receive a monthly stipend from the Hokage, and I don't pay rent" Naruto frowned, asking himself for the first time why. "Why do you ask?" Haru turned around and looked quizzically at Naruto, the way someone would look at someone who missed a joke and was about to explain.

"Well, I need to know these things if I want to live with you, right?"

"Of course, live— With… me?!" Naruto's heart almost stopped, _why would Haru want to live with him?_ "What? Why?" Haru looked hurt for a moment and Naruto's chest felt tight.

"Well, because… Aren't we brother and sister? We are family, Naruto, families should live together, and to be honest I don't think a ten-year-old kid should live alone."

"Oi, I'm already almost an adult, I'm even attending Konoha's Ninja Academy!" Naruto puffed his chest in pride as he looked at Haru in the eye.

"Is that so?" she asked sounding unimpressed while she fiddled with the rice pot on the stove. "So you don't want me to live with you?"

"NO!" Naruto yelled, Haru's eyes went downcast and she started fiddling with her thumbs "that's not what I meant! I want you to live with me Haru" a smile appeared on Haru pretty face, it made Naruto grin.

"Well for the time being let's eat"

It was the first time Naruto ate something homemade, it was the first time Naruto ate with someone else. To be honest, the rice wasn't bad but it's wasn't great either, it was just normal white rice with soy sauce and salt, but for Naruto, it was the most delicious food he had ever eaten, and almost as good as the best ramen from Ichiraku's. Haru's table manners were quite refined and Naruto instinctively tried to copy how she ate, how she held her chopsticks, how she sat straight and how her movements had a certain flow. When Naruto saw Haru smile at him and nod in approval his chest felt like it was fluttering, he couldn't stop but grin. He really liked Haru.

After they ate Naruto started preparing to go to school, even though Haru was concerned about his health, he already felt completely fine, it took some time but he was able to convince Haru that he was well enough to go to school. Before going out Haru asked Naruto timidly if he could lend him some cash so she could go to the Shimakami village to get her things from the inn owner. Naruto was running late so he told her where he had stashed his savings, in a ceramic bowl above the cupboard.

For the first time, Naruto was able to say _"I'm leaving"_ and receive a _"Take care"_ in response. Naruto ran grinning like a madman all the way to the academy. Not even the glares from the town's people could sour hid good mood.


	3. Hero

Naruto was running at full speed through Konoha's roads, he ignored the villager's dirty stares, his mind full of Haru, or should it be Haru-neesan, neechan? He didn't want to sound childish in front of her, but he really wanted to use a more familiar term. It was ok, right? They were brother and sister, she wouldn't get mad if he called her, neesan? Naruto decided just then that the next time he saw her he would call her _Haru-neesan._

Naruto reached the Academy just before they closed the doors, first class was a history lecture with Mizuki-sensei, when he entered the classroom he looked for Sakura-chan to sit with her, Naruto frowned when he noticed she was sitting, and fawning, beside Sasuke. Naruto did a beeline and sat next to her.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan!" said Naruto with a grin on his face, it wavered a bit when he didn't get a response, he was going to speak again but Mizuki-sensei started his lecture. Something boring about the second shinobi war or something, he tuned him out and tried to think of things Haru-neesan and he could do together, what exactly did families do? Naruto looked around, he didn't really have any friends, Kiba, Chouji, and Shikamaru were the only ones who tolerated him, just a little. Kiba had a sister but he always complained about her, Naruto thought that Haru-nee was prettier and nicer than Kiba's sister. Maybe he should ask him what families do together, the Inuzuka seemed a very family oriented clan.

After Mizuki-sensei finished his lecture they were given a ten-minute rest before the next class started. Sakura-chan and Ino followed Sasuke outside each one walking beside him and fawning all over him. Naruto frowned at that but followed them.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto said but Sakura ignored him "Oi, Sakura-chan!" Naruto patted Sakura on the shoulder, she stopped abruptly and turned around, her cute face showing an angry expression

"Ugh, what do you want you idiot!?" Naruto flinched a bit

"Sakura-chan, guess what? I met my sister! she came yesterday and I was thinking if you wanted to meet her—"

"What are you talking about? Sister? If that were true, I would pity the poor girl for having such a stupid brother!" Sakura turned towards Ino who was already a few paces away from them. "Ino! Ino-pig! Hear this!" Ino turned at the rude nickname

"What did you say?!" Ino walked towards Sakura with an angry face.

"Hear this! Naruto says he got a sister!" Sakura giggled, Ino snorted in response

"Naruto, if I found I was your sister I would leave the village immediately, who would want a dumb brother like you?" both girls laughed and went to chase after Sasuke while bickering all the way.

Naruto was shocked, was it true what they said? Did sisters hate dumb little brothers to the point they would run away? What if Haru-neesan realized how stupid Naruto was and decided she was better off in her old home? Naruto's chest tightened and a dull pain set in his heart.

 _He didn't want Haru-neesan to leave._

He hadn't spent that much time with Haru-neesan, but the idea of being alone again scared him more than anything else. He decided in that moment that he would give his best effort to become someone Haru-neesan would be proud of. He walked back to the classroom, most of his classmates were back in their seats, Naruto didn't really want to sit beside Sakura and most people would just make rude comments if he sat beside them; that would be distracting. Then he saw her, the black haired girl, she was sitting at the back of the class her eyes locked in her textbook, the seat beside her was empty. Naruto respected Hinata for being the only girl who didn't fawn all over Sasuke.

He made his way towards her and plopped himself on the seat, she made a small squawking sound and looked at Naruto her face beet red. _Did she have a fever?_ Naruto grinned at her

"Good morning, Hinata, is it?."

The girl's white eyes became round and she stiff as a stone statue, Naruto leaned forward and whispered "This is where you say ' _good morning'_ back"

"g-good… goo— mo-morning" she said before burying her face in her book. Yeah, Hinata seemed bit weird. Naruto turned his attention to the front where Iruka-sensei was starting his lecture, Iruka wrote _basics of chakra control_ on the blackboard. Naruto had already his notebook out and started writing everything Iruka-sensei said.

He didn't notice the curious way Iruka was looking at him or the side glances Hinata threw him from time to time.

O=O=O=O

Harry sighed as Naruto left, he would have a word with the boy on how not to be so trusting, although he didn't think it was a bad trait to have, at least he would teach the boy of thinking twice before telling someone he had just meet where he had hidden his savings. But for the moment it had worked in his favor that he was such a trusting boy. He needed to go to the next village to make some purchases and prepare some documents so there was no doubt he was Naruto's sister. The boy had immediately accepted that as a fact, Harry wasn't sure if Sarutobi or Ibiki would accept it so easily, most likely they would interrogate him to make sure he wasn't some kind of spy or sleeper agent.

After Naruto left, Harry made the bed and cleaned the plates, not because he felt the need to do it but mostly to kill time. He didn't want to be seen going out of the house by any stray ANBU.

Harry decided to buy pajamas, cotton yukatas weren't exactly the most comfortable cloth to sleep on, Harry went out of the tiny apartment for the first time.

The first thing he noticed when he opened the door was how fresh and pure the air smelled, in comparison with Privet Drive or London. Harry noticed the missing smell of smog or burnt combustible even at Hogwarts or The Burrow the air wasn't as pure as here. _So this world is pre-industrial revolution,_ Harry took a step outside looking around, nobody saw him get out of the apartment so he quickly distanced himself from the place and started walking down the road, people walking looked at him and frowned but when Harry gave back them a gentle smile people seemed confused. He walked like a proper lady with small cat-like steps with his hands clasped in front holding his drawstring bag where he had stuffed Naruto's money.

Sometimes he noticed how men's stares lingered on him and how quickly they looked away when he looked back, _damn is it really that obvious when men stare at women?_ Harry wondered if he ever gazed at Ginny or Cho that way. Harry decided to smile and politely nod at the people who stared too much at him. After about half an hour of walking and not feeling tired at all, this body seemed to be in top physical condition, he reached Konoha's gates. Besides them there was a small cart business, he entered the shop and an old man with a balding head greeted him.

The man sold him a ticket to Shimakami village that would depart out in ten minutes, while all the time looking suspiciously at Harry, Harry just smiled at the man and gave his thanks with a graceful bow. These etiquette lessons that Mito-san gave to Kushina were paying off even if Kushina never really used them.

Half an hour later he was sitting in an ox-drawn carriage with three other people, a hooded man that seemed to want to keep to himself, a young boy maybe a bit older than Naruto and what looked like his father a large-bellied man with gaudy rings and fine velvety red clothes, a merchant, Harry thought. And like before, the man, who looked to be in his late forties, couldn't keep his eyes from Harry. _Was he really that attractive or was it because he looked a lot like Naruto's Sexy Jutsu_?

Harry drew away from the man while clasping his yukata as close as possible, for some reason he felt a bit nervous. It took the carriage about half the day to reach Shimakami, Harry had to deflect the attempts at conversation by the merchant. He didn't look happy at that but by the third time he got the point and left Harry alone.

When Harry arrived at Shimakami he didn't want to waste time, he immediately went to the nearest inn and rented a room, Kushina's nor Minato's memories were familiar with Shimakami so Harry had to ask the manager to point her to the trading district.

The "trading district" wasn't more than a cobblestone covered road with different shops lining its sides, people bustled around carrying bags with the goods they had purchased, others lingered outside the shops, and he even saw several couples holding hands, probably on dates.

The first thing Harry needed was a rucksack, he bought big one, second hand, not because it was cheaper but because it would be more believable if it looked worse for wear, then clothes, he found a nice and cheap second-hand shop and bought several changes of clothes mostly pants, shorts and t-shirts and for some reason a black silk kimono with golden patterned circles, _not flowers_! It even had a red obi.

Harry went to the general store and purchased the things any civilian girl her age should have; like personal cleaning and grooming products and those things you needed once a month. _For a moment Harry felt a little dread but decided to ignore it, he would cross that bridge when the time came,_ it was a little awkward but he also bought underwear and thanks to Kushina's memories she knew how to choose something that fit his new body,he alsobought several ink bottles and writing utensils, and some simple paper and several empty scrolls. By the time he had finished his purchases Harry was carrying all of his stuff in his rucksack and two plastic bags.

Back in his room Harry locked the door and spread his purchases on the bed then he racked his mind for the next step. _I hope this works Kushina_.

Harry brought his hands together in a ram seal, his eyes closed. A warm blue light enveloped his body as Harry stood there for a moment completely still, he opened his eyes and they were violet.

O=O=O=O

Harry's new body was really pretty, Kushina could also feel the Uzumaki chakra in it, she flexed her arms and could feel well-defined strong muscles, if Harry received training she could become a great kunoichi. But that would only happen if Harry found herself interested in that. Anyway, the thing that Kushina needed to do right now is to prepare the documents that would make Harry's backstory perfect. All the tools she needed were spread on the bed, she took the brush and started writing on the scroll.

After two hours of hard work and several Jutsu, only an Uzumaki would know, she had several sealed scrolls and letters. One was addressed to Konoha's Hokage it explained who 'Haruko' was, and why her existence was kept a secret, the explanation was simple, she didn't want Haruko to become the next demon fox host or a target for someone who wanted access to the Uzumaki techniques and chakra. The next scroll was a letter that explained to 'Haruko' who she was and where to find her brother, the rest were a series of opened letters addressed to Hanako as if she was having a conversation with a young 'Haruko', another jutsu that was in Minato memories made the letters and scroll look ten years older. It was a common jutsu used by some ninjas to create false documents, it was also undetectable.

After Kushina finished with the scrolls she walked downstairs and greeted the inn manager

"Inn manager-san can I have a word with you?" the inn manager looked at her and nodded, the room where the Inn's front desk was, was empty save for the both of them, _great_ , Kushina stealthy made hand seal for a genjutsu to insert some fake memories on the inn manager. The inn manager frowned at her "I want to apologize again for making you wait to get paid." Kushina bowed deeply.

"Don't worry miss you already paid your dues and you got your stuff back so we are fine" the man laughed and she walked back to Harry's room. Once she was in the room she put her hands in a ram seal, her eyes closed and released the jutsu. When she opened her eyes they were back to Harry's bright green.

O=O=O=O

Harry felt tired, he saw the scrolls and letters on the bed and let out a sigh. He changed into teal pajamas and fell asleep before even touching the bed.

The next morning Harry organized his stuff and stored everything in his new but used rucksack, he had spent a lot of money but he hadn't even made a dent on Naruto's savings, he would have to prepare some good food for the kid when he returned to Konoha.

He changed back into his handmade yukata not wanting to dirty his 'new' clothes.

Harry set out to the ox-carriage company after paying the Inn manager for the night he spent. He walked around town and noted the differences on how people reacted to him, as in Konoha men's stares lingered a little bit on his new body but most people didn't give him a second glance or frowned at him, he even heard a little girl comment on how pretty that oneesan was, which made Harry blush.

After buying the tickets Harry got into the carriage and slowly but surely made his way to Konoha, he was again with the hooded man, the pervy merchant, his son and a gray-haired old man with a crooked nose like Dumbledore's. Harry sat as far away from the merchant and tried to ignore the glances he was giving him. He distracted himself remembering what he needed to do to get into Konoha. While he mulled this and mentally prepared himself for the interrogation he knew was coming. About halfway the trip, the carriage suddenly stopped the ox pulling the carriage made distressed noises, when Harry looked at the other people they looked worried and the little kid seemed to be on the verge of tears.

Then he heard the yell of "Bandits!" followed by the agonizing cry of the cart driver, the little kid was already in tears and his father was hugging him closer in a protective manner. The black hooded man was stiff, probably frozen by fear and the old grandpa was trembling. Then someone opened the curtain.

A thin-faced man with droopy eyes and bags under them, he wore a forehead protector with the symbol for leaf slashed, marking him as a missing-nin. His face splitting in a scary feral grin showing yellowing teeth and a pair of pronounced canines. He looked to his left and spoke

"Sojuro, we hit the jackpot!" he said and then leered at Harry "Everyone! down!" he ordered when nobody moved he roughly grabbed the old man and tossed him outside. The old man fell with a loud crack and Harry heard a yelp of pain.

Harry was paralyzed, his body trembling. It didn't make sense this wasn't the first time he was in a sticky situation but his body wouldn't stop shaking. The merchant and his son got out of the cart and Harry saw the black hooded man stand but instead for getting out he went to Harry. Firmly but at the same time gently, the black hooded man helped Harry stand up and get out of the cart.

"Oi, asshole what do you think you are doing?" the black hooded man turned mechanically

"She is paralyzed with fear, I'm helping her, _sir._ " Harry thought that the word ' _sir'_ was laced with more sarcasm than was necessary. But the droopy-eyed man didn't notice.

"Well, hurry up and get that bitch down!" Harry felt how the black hooded man's grip tightened on his arm

Outside the cart Harry found himself in a thickly forested area, the old man was laying on the ground unmoving and unbreathing, he was dead. The merchant and his son were on their knees. A burly dark-skinned man with a shaved head was searching them removing anything of value. Instinctively Harry hugged his rucksack closer to his body the thin-faced man noticed it and grabbed Harry by his neck and forced him to his knees. He removed the bag and rummaged through it with a disappointed expression he tossed it aside.

"Just trash!" he leered at Harry "at least you are pretty cute" he licked his lips in a way that made Harry shudder. The other man, Sojuro, had finished taking everything from the others

"Kill them all, but keep the cutie for later." Harry's eyes widened as he saw Jinto, in a smooth motion, send three Kunai flying. They embed themselves in the head of the two other men and the little kid, their bodies fell limply into the ground spraying blood everywhere.

From their wounds blood oozed forming a puddle, Sojuro cackled a nasty laugh, "no hesitation, as expected of a ninja of the leaf" Jinto made a sour look at the other man.

"No-no" Harry tried to push his magic, he felt it but it's been years since he had done accidental magic, nothing happened and he had never been able to use wandless. He did the next best thing, he stood up hitting Jinto's jaw with the top of his head, Harry's ears ringed as he started running towards the thick woods, but the Yukata he was wearing didn't let him run very fast or very far.

Thin, almost invisible wires coiled around him making his arms stuck to his side and his leg clamp together. He went face first, he tried to move or break free but the wires didn't allow him much movement.

"I like 'em when they have some spirit" Jinto snorted "It's way more fun when they finally break!" Harry felt how Jinto kicked him in the stomach sending a jolt of pain through his body and emptying his lungs. He didn't faint but he pretended to, that way the man wouldn't kick him again. He heard Jinto cackle again as he lifted Harry over his shoulder, and then in a sudden boost of speed they were flying, or rather jumping from tree to tree at great speeds. Harry half-opened one of his eyes and saw Sojuro following them with several bags one of them was his.

Harry racked his mind, how was he going to get out of this, if he had his wand he could easily do a surprise attack and be in Konoha in an instant, but he didn't have it, and he was never able to do wandless magic. He didn't have the memories of any jutsu, the memories implanted in him were rather limited, and calling Kushina or Minato in this situation would probably waste too much of their chakra. But if he died here there would be no one to take care of Naruto.

It was decided, the moment he could make the hand seal he would call for Minato's help. After about half an hour of jumping the treetops they descended into a clearing, Jinto made a hand seal, a part of the ground opened revealing a stairway. After a short time, Harry was tossed into a room, the ground was covered in hay and it was lightly illuminated by an oil lamp.

"Ok, go take the things to Gihei, I'll have some fun with this one"

"Hey, are you sure? You know Gihei likes to be the first!" Sojuro said nervously

"Don't worry I'll deal with him, Just go!" Harry heard the door close, Jinto cut the wires with a kunai, in that instant Harry tried to bring his hands into the ram seal but before he could join them he felt a sharp pain in his wrists as Jinto kicked them and bound them with a jutsu.

"Did you think I didn't realize you were pretending little girl?"

Some invisible force pressed on his wrist and ankles as invisible tight handcuffs, Harry looked at the man in front of him, he was breathing heavily and had a disgusting expression on his face. Harry was lifted by his wrists. He tried to free himself but each time he struggled the tightness of the bindings worsened causing him pain.

Jinto's hand reached for Harry's face and traced his cheek, Harry felt sick at the touch of the man and wanted to scream, but something pressed around his neck cutting his respiration. Tears started to flow from his eyes. Harry couldn't understand what was happening to him. Not even when Voldemort had killed Cedric in front of him or when he had realized that the department of mysteries had been a trap set up by Voldemort had he felt so much fear as he was now feeling. Was because of his new body or something else?

When Jinto opened his yukata and revealed his chest bound in bandages Jinto snorted "Were you trying to hide them?" the man grabbed Harry by the chin and locked eyes with him, just as he leaned forward, his face less than an inch from Harry's, he suddenly turned to block a roundhouse kick from the black hooded man, Jinto jumped away several meters and landed gracefully on the hay-covered ground.

"Jinto, The Fear Demon" the black hooded man said as he removed his black cloak revealing long brown hair, white eyes signature of the Hyuga clan, the veins of his temple bulging indicating he had activated his bloodline limit, he was wearing a bandana-like forehead protector indicating he was a ninja of the leaf. Harry noted that he was rather young probably fifteen if not a little bit older "You have no chance to defeat me, surrender now!" Jinto palmed a Kunai and lunged at the Hyuga with a feral snarl. He was making a hand seal with his free hand. The Hyuga man was already in a Juken stance, the tip of his hands glowing blue with chakra. Hyuga-san easily deflected every kunai slash and Jinto barely avoided Hyuga-san's counter-attacks, it would seem they were evenly matched, if not for Hyuga-san's calm almost bored expression and Jinto's desperate, frantic attacks.

"Your genjutsu is useless against me," said Hyuga-san as he landed a glancing blow on Jinto's shoulder closing his tenketsu point, his left arm went limp, the man screamed in pain and made a direct stab towards Hyuga-san's chest, Hyuga-san grabbed Jinto's shoulder and in one motion somersaulted over Jinto, and with one attack sealed his other shoulder, his other arm going limp too. Hyuga-san fell behind him.

Jinto made a small gasping sound as his eyes widened in terror, at the same time the grip in Harry's neck, ankles and wrists loosened making Harry fall to the ground. Harry looked up as Hyuga-san removed a bloody kunai from Jinto nape, the missing-nin fell on the ground like a rag doll eyes rolled out. Hyuga-san didn't remove his sight from Harry as he tossed him his black cloak. Harry covered himself in the cloak that felt so familiar, just like a Hogwarts' robe, that he couldn't stop from smiling a bit, the man looked at him for a moment before speaking.

"You'll be safe now," he said his voice void of emotion "my team is cleaning this hideout as we speak"

"T-thank you," said Harry and the man stared at him for a moment before nodding. Harry tried to stand but his legs gave away, he frowned as he realized his whole body was trembling, Harry heard the clash of metal with metal in the distance and some explosions here and there. Someone was fighting somewhere. Hyuga-san had his byakugan active he probably was watching how the rest of his team was faring, and as he looked calm Harry thought they weren't doing so bad

"What's your name?" Harry asked trying to break the awkward silence, the man stared at Harry for a few seconds before answering "Hiroshi Hyuga" he said and remained silent. _This guy was socially inept or not a very good conversationalist._

"I'm Haruko Uzu—" just as he was about to say his name the door opened to reveal the rest of Hiroshi's team, a petite girl, a bit shorter than Harry, with a spiky ponytail made of stringy black hair and sharp eyes that made her look rather mean, and a red-haired boy with a lean build, freckled face and pale blue eyes that reminded him of Ron.

Behind them was a face he recognized from his implanted memories, gray spiky hair, one black eye, one sharingan. Kakashi Hakate Konoha's very own copy-nin

His eyes went wide with surprise when they locked with Harry's


	4. Kakashi

Hiroshi was a proud member of the Hyuga clan's main family, his father was the clan head's, Hyuga Hiashi, second cousin, since a young age he was trained by his father in the juken taijutsu style that was the trademark of the Hyuga clan.

As a member of the main family, Hiroshi enjoyed many of the liberties and statuses that the branch family members lacked, also as the son of a minor member of the main family he enjoyed some liberties a more prominent member, like Hinata-sama or Hanabi-sama, would lack. Hiroshi himself thought his position was ideal, he could choose his own destiny without bringing shame to his clan.

He still chose to become a shinobi, but not because that was what everyone expected of him but because he wanted to be able to help those who couldn't defend themselves, he had always admired the tale of the Fourth Hokage and how he gave his life to save Konoha, Hiroshi knew he would never be able to save the whole village but if he could save at least one life he'd be satisfied, _not that he would stop at one_.

Some people would think Hiroshi's dream to become a hero as childish, Hiroshi sometimes wondered if they were right.

It had been three years since he had become a genin, and today, his team, team Kakashi, had been assigned an "A-rank" mission near Konoha; a group of 'bandits' had been attacking merchants going between Konoha and the neighboring village of Shimakami; these bandits where Jinto _'the fear Demon'_ a Konoha missing-nin that specialized in genjutsu, Sojuro a former bandit that had been receiving training from Jinto, and Gihei a Kuma shinobi known for his brutal sadism and his use of fire jutsu.

They weren't exactly high threats, at least not enough that an ANBU or a chunin team needed to be dispatched, so the Hokage had decided to send the most experienced genin team he had at his disposal. The real problem with this group was that they were surprisingly crafty and had so far avoided capture by other teams. Most likely they had a hideout in the nearby forest.

The plan that Yu had come up with was as simple as it was effective. Hiroshi would board an ox-carriage that traveled between Konoha and Shimakami until they were attacked, he then would mark one of the attackers with a tracking tag and follow them to their hideout.

He donned a simple black cloak, to hide his Hyuga bloodline, and boarded the first carriage towards Shimakami, a merchant and his son joined him, and about ten minutes before the carriage had to depart, the curtain opened and a pretty blond girl, not older than Hiroshi, entered the carriage, she was wearing a simple yukata with flower print, it looked handmade, it caught Hiroshi attention how the girl smiled gently and how she bowed as a means of greeting. It was rare for a girl who wore handmade clothes to be so well mannered or wear clothes that modest. She certainly didn't look like she was from a ninja family or from a rich civilian family. Who was she? For some reason, she seemed familiar but Hiroshi couldn't remember ever meeting a girl that cute.

 _Wait, what?_

She certainly was attractive, her glossy blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her green eyes sparkled with the morning sun, and her facial features were soft and pleasing to the eyes. She had an air of femininity but at the same time, Hiroshi felt she was someone with a strong will.

When she sat, the merchant instantly tried to talk to her, but the girl, quite skillfully deflected every attempt, she seemed uncomfortable under the old man's stare, for some reason that made her more attractive in Hiroshi's eyes.

As the carriage made its way towards Shimakami, Hiroshi observed the girl who seemed lost in thought, He wanted to know what was bothering her, he would help her if he could.

They arrived at Shimakami and the girl quickly disappeared. Hiroshi continued his rounds between Konoha and Shimakami waiting for the bandits to attack the carriage. The memory of the girl never leaving his mind completely.

He wondered if he would ever see her again. His chest tightened a bit.

The next day early in the morning Hiroshi meet the girl again on the same cart. She was now hauling a rather big rucksack, and again, they were accompanied by the merchant and his son, also an elderly man with a balding head. Hiroshi hoped this trip wasn't the one which the bandits decided to attack.

Just as he thought that he heard the yell from the cart driver. He quickly cleared his mind and sat still activating his bloodline. When Jinto opened the cart's curtain two things happened; Hiroshi surged his chakra as he felt Jinto's fear-inducing genjutsu, blocking it, and Hiroshi's blood boiled as Jinto leered at the blond girl, she started to shake as she fell into Jinto's genjutsu. It was Hiroshi's shinobi training and the mission ahead that stopped him from murdering Jinto right then and there.

When Jinto ordered everyone down, Hiroshi used a genjutsu to trick everyone into thinking that Jinto had killed the old man, he helped the girl down hoping that that would stop Jinto from harming her. Hiroshi tried to ignore how soft her arm felt or how she smelt of flowers and rice.

When Jinto kicked the girl after she tried to escape, Hiroshi's hand jerked towards his kunai holster only the idea of failing the mission stopped him from driving a kunai on Jinto's head.

After Jinto and Sojuro left with the girl and the spoils, his team descended next to him, Yu and Shigeno quickly looked after the other victims while Hiroshi reported to Kakashi

"Jinto took a hostage, a young blond girl. I set a tracking tag on her yukata so we can follow her" said Hiroshi with a clipped voice

"Good job. Hiroshi-kun, are you all right?" Hiroshi didn't respond immediately, but he knew Kakashi noticed how anxious he was.

"Yes, Sensei," he said nervously looking at the direction Jinto had disappeared to

"You go first, wait for us there, just mark where their hideout is" Hiroshi nodded curtly at Kakashi-sensei and in a burst of speed he started chasing the chakra trace the tag left behind.

O=O=O=O

Kakashi was surprised at Hiroshi, the usually stoic Hyuga was all fidgety and worried, and he wondered if he knew the hostage. Well, it didn't really matter, Hiroshi was already a competent shinobi and wouldn't have a problem dealing with any of the targets even though Gihei had an B rank in the bingo book and Jinto a C Rank. After Yu and Shigeno made sure the other hostages were fine they followed the tag's chakra trace.

Once they reached the clearing Hiroshi was hiding on the treetops, as soon as the three of them fell beside him he jumped down and made a hand seal that opened the ground to reveal a flight of stairs that went into a cavernous path illuminated by chakra lights. Yu whistled.

"So that's why nobody ever found trace them." Said Shigeno

"Yu, trace the tag and make sure no harm comes to the hostage, Shigeno, and Hiroshi-kun you come with me"

"Sensei, I want to track the tag myself," said Hiroshi surprising everyone, Kakashi tilted his head in a questioning manner "from what we read from the reports, she probably will be _held_ by Jinto" Kakashi noticed how Hiroshi's hands became tight fists until his knuckles were white or how his explanation sounded more like an excuse. "And to be honest, Yu is really crap with genjutsu" Yu protested with an _'oi',_ Kakashi considered Hiroshi for a moment, it felt as if this whole thing was something personal for him. Still, he couldn't find fault in his logic. Yu was indeed shit with genjutsu.

"Fine, Yu, Shigeno with me."

They went down the stairs, Hiroshi disappeared as he rushed to follow the tracking tag. Yu and Shigeno looked at each other and frowned, even they noticed there was something wrong with their teammate.

They made their way towards what looked the main area of the hideout, it was there where the targets were. As they ran through the corridors Kakashi heard the sound of kunai flying just in time to see Yu block one that was directed towards Shigeno's head. They both went ahead and engaged a brown skinned bald man that Kakashi recognized as Sojuro, Jinto's apprentice. While both Yu and Shigeno were more than capable of dealing with a C-Rank ninja, there was no reason not to overwhelm him. Unfortunately, another man blocked his path when he tried to help his students. Gihei of the Fire Lotus.

Gihei sent a stream of fire that Kakashi blocked with a chakra infused kunai; in the same motion he uncovered his sharingan, the world around him became clearer as he started to notice things he couldn't before. Kakashi launched himself at Gihei making the seals for the same fire jutsu he used. From the corner of his eye, he could see how Sojuro was barely able to deflect Shigeno's and Yu's flurry of kunai and shuriken with his short sword.

Kakashi jumped backwards, a pillar of fire erupted from the ground where he was standing seconds before, Kakashi palmed a Kunai and sent it flying towards Gihei, he deflected it with a slash of his flame-covered hand, not noticing the explosive tag attached to it before the explosion enveloped him his mangled body falling to his knees before falling face first into the packed dirt ground. Kakashi approached him as he saw both Yu and Shigeno land a decisive blow into Sojuro, each one driving a kunai at each side of the wannabe shinobi.

Then Gihei exploded in a puff of smoke, it was a clone, he watched with horror as he appeared behind him wielding a katana made of fire, before he could react he drove the firebrand through his back, looking down, Kakashi could see the fiery sword stick out of his abdomen, he looked up and saw his students' horror-filled eyes, before he too disappeared in a puff of smoke, the real Kakashi fell from the ceiling where he had been watching his shadow clone fight Gihei. He was a bit disappointed he expected someone with such a nickname put a better fight.

He fell on the red-haired man like a bird of prey embedding both of his kunai on the body of the fire ninja; one on his skull and the other on his heart making sure the man would never wake up again.

"Way to go sensei! I was worried for a bit!" said Yu in his usual cheerful manner

"I wasn't," said Shigeno blushing a bit and letting out a sigh of relief that made Kakashi smile.

They set their way towards where Hiroshi had gone, hoping that the stoic boy hadn't gotten over his head.

O=O=O=O

Kakashi was shocked when he looked at the young girl, at first he thought she looked like Naruto's Sexy Jutsu but the girl looked more like a female Minato with some of Kushina facial features, she had Naruto's whisker marks.

"Whoa! Hiroshi-kun who is the pretty lady?" said Yu, he walked forward and bowed deeply to the girl offering a hand "Hello, miss, I am Hasumi Yu, but you may call me Yu or dear" Kakashi smiled and cringed preemptively, Shigeno raised her hand and with more force than was politely necessary, punched him on the top of his head making his face meet the ground.

"You damn perverted playboy! Can't you see the girl is distressed? Read the damn atmosphere!" Shigeno said this while stepping on Yu's head. Kakashi didn't comment that Yu looked like he was enjoying the current turn of events. Hiroshi-kun was still looking at the girl with his byakugan active, Kakashi eyebrows raised a bit at that.

"Hiroshi-kun?" Kakashi asked him

"Kakashi-sensei" he answered as he deactivated his byakugan "nothing to report sensei, as we had planned I eliminated Jinto before he could harm the hostage" for anyone else Hiroshi's answer would sound deadpan, but Kakashi knew the boy since he was eleven and for him, he sounded like he was angry. Kakashi turned to the girl and when their eyes met Kakashi covered his sharingan with his forehead protector.

"Are you hurt?" the girl shook her head, Kakashi heard Hiroshi let out a sigh "Who are you miss?" The girl looked scared, but then her face was filled with resolution, Kakashi couldn't stop himself from remembering seeing that same determined look in the red-haired Kushina.

"My name is Haruko Uzumaki" Kakashi's heart skipped a beat, Shigeno stopped grappling with Yu and even Hiroshi-kun frowned, the girl looked confused, when none of them said anything she continued "I was on my way to Konoha to visit my brother, when the cart I was traveling was attacked by bandits, they killed everyone." she sniffled and her body started to tremble again "even the little kid"

Yu was the first one to talk "Don't worry! Everyone is fine!" he said giving her his most winning smile the girl didn't react which made Yu flatter a bit and Shigeno snicker, even Kakashi smiled a bit under his mask.

"I used a genjutsu to make the missing-nin believe they had killed everyone in the cart" he paused for a moment "I'm sorry my genjutsu affected you." everyone turned to look at Hiroshi who generally was silent and rarely spoke unless he was spoken to, Kakashi smile widened as he realized why Hiroshi-kun was acting so strange, Yu had a silly smile and Shigeno was frowning at Hiroshi.

"Haruko-san," Kakashi called the girl, "you said your destination was Konoha to meet your brother, is by any chance his name Naruto Uzumaki?"

The girl hesitated for a second before nodding, there was a small gasp from Shigeno. Kakashi mind was racing, the probabilities were high that she was saying the truth, she looked way older than Naruto, Kakashi would guess about fifteen or sixteen; that would mean Kushina had her at nineteen. But, why would Minato and Kushina keep her a secret it didn't make sense.

"Do you know him? My brother?" Yu snorted and Kakashi threw him a glare

"Yes," he said "he is a rather infamous prankster," he didn't mention how he was the son of his sensei, who had been Konoha's Yellow Flash and Fourth Hokage or how Kushina was like the big sister he never had. "We better leave this talk for later," His team nodded and the girl tried to stand but failed, falling back on her bum, when Yu reached to help her Hiroshi put himself between the girl and Yu and lifted her carrying her princess style, the girl protested but when Hiroshi narrowed his eyes the girl nodded, Kakashi smiled again behind his mask.

The girl was being bashful, her face and ears reddening, but she still put her arms around Hiroshi's neck. Hiroshi looked stoic as always if not for the happy aura that emanated from him. As they were leaving the hideout with a grumbling Yu and a frowning Shigeno the girl spoke again.

"Err… sorry, but did any of you see a lavender rucksack?"

"I saw one of them leave a bag in one room Haru-chan" Hiroshi frowned at the familiar way of address or maybe at how much Haruko beamed at Yu.

"Uh, there is some really important stuff there, can I go back and retrieve it?"

"No," said Hiroshi, Kakashi's raised one eyebrow at him "Yu, you bring the rucksack" Yu looked at Kakashi as if to complain and Kakashi gave him back a look and a shrug of his shoulders, he looked at Shigeno who simply rolled her eyes.

As they got out of the hideout Kakashi resealed the entrance and committed to memory the location so they could send an ANBU team to retrieve the bodies and investigate the place, it seemed like an excellent point to launch raids to Konoha itself, if it was necessary it would be demolished.

A few minutes later they were jumping through the treetops, Hiroshi setting a slower pace than they were normally used. Yu was carrying Haruko-san's bag and Hiroshi Haruko-san herself. The girl seemed unaffected by the speed they had set even though she seemed to be a civilian. Kakashi would say she seemed to enjoy the speed and high altitude.

In less than an hour, they reached Konoha's gates. The mission had been a success and if what the girl was saying was the truth they probably had saved some of the Fourth's legacy. If she was lying they had captured a dangerous spy who knew of Naruto, when they reached Konoha's gates Haruko insisted that she was able to walk. Hiroshi reluctantly put her down, Yu gave her back her bag and she rummaged through it and pulled out an old looking scroll with a chakra seal with the Uzumaki crest in it.

"I'm supposed to give this to the current Hokage" the girl offered the scroll to Kakashi and when he grabbed it he could feel Kushina's chakra in it.

"Hiroshi." Kakashi said, Hiroshi activated his byakugan for a moment before nodding "Yu, go ahead and Inform the Hokage that we are bringing Haruko-san" Yu nodded his face all business and disappeared in a gust of wind and leaves. "Shigeno can you try to bring Naruto to the Hokage's tower?" Shigeno nodded but because how Kakashi had looked at her, he knew she understood the undertone of his request, then Kakashi beckoned the girl to follow him

As they approached the gate the two chunin guarding it gave a respectful nod to Kakashi and a curious look to Haruko, she still looked a little bit shaken. As they walked through Konoha's streets Kakashi noted how people looked at her before they noticed him, they quickly gave a respectful nod and looked away.

Hiroshi was shouldering Haruko-san's rucksack as he threw her side glances, interestingly the girl seemed to be unaware of this. Just as they rounded a corner Kakashi made a hand seal for a sleep-inducing genjutsu as Haruko-san fell backward Kakashi caught her before she hit the ground.

"Kakashi-sensei?!" Hiroshi said with a surprised look

"We need to make sure she is telling the truth" When Kakashi looked at Hiroshi's surprised look he wondered if his infatuation was making his usually sharp pupil dumber than Naruto. Kakashi realized the power a woman wielded was stronger than any Jutsu he knew.

"We are taking her to Ibiki" Hiroshi calm mask broke in as his eyes widened in fear at the mention of the interrogation specialist. Kakashi lifted Haruko in princess style just as Hiroshi had done earlier; Hiroshi looked jealous. Kakashi let out a sigh before muttering "kids"


	5. Turth

Haru-neesan hadn't come home last night, Naruto was bit worried, but he remembered that Shimakami village was more than half a day away from Konoha, it was probable that Haru-neesan wasn't able to take an ox-carriage back to Konoha in time. Surely tomorrow she would be back. When Naruto woke up that morning he felt disappointed that Haru-neesan wasn't home yet, he felt a bit anxious before heading to the academy.

He was ten minutes earlier and the classroom was almost empty, he saw Hinata already in her seat at the far back of the classroom, Naruto considered his options, he didn't feel like sitting near Ino or Sakura anymore, maybe it had something to do to with what they had said yesterday, about Haru-neesan leaving because he was stupid or maybe was the way they had said it or maybe because yesterday when he sat beside Hinata, and he hadn't understood Iruka-sensei's explanation of basic seals, he hesitantly asked her about it; And while she stuttered a bit and her face was a bit red, _she was probably angry,_ she explained it to him and, surprisingly, Naruto understood. That had been a better treatment than he had ever received from Sakura.

Naruto sat beside her, she jumped a bit and her shoulders tensed but didn't say anything.

"Hinata! Good morning!" said Naruto cheerfully

"Good Morning… Naruto-kun" Hinata whispered, Naruto grinned at her before turning his attention at the front of the class, he was going to stop being stupid so Haru-neesan wouldn't leave.

Several classes later Naruto was fighting against his own drowsiness, but he only had to remember Haru-neesan to be able to focus on the class again.

He had to do this every few minutes.

"The flow of chakra around the body determines the strength and precision of the jutsu one will be capable to do," Iruka-sensei droned "to increase your flow and chakra capacity there are certain exercises and meditation methods you can do, for example, to increase your chakra capacity you can—" the bell ringed and Naruto frowned as his pen stopped writing what Iruka-sensei was saying, his classmates started to flow out of the classroom, he saw as Sakura followed Sasuke out, Naruto said goodbye to Hinata and went straight to Iruka-sensei who was arranging the scrolls in his desk.

"Sensei! Iruka-sensei!" Naruto called, Iruka turned and smiled at him. Iruka was one of the few adults who didn't see him with contempt in their eyes, Naruto wondered why? He probably was just that cool.

"Yes, Naruto?" Iruka asked

"You see— Sensei, you didn't finish what you were going to say, what exercises you need to do in order to increase your chakra capacity?" Iruka eyes widened and his eyebrows raised a tiny bit.

"Oh, that's right Naruto, well, you can find these exercises in chapter ten of your chakra control textbook" he paused as he saw Naruto's disappointed look "Also, if you want to know more, there are some extra reading you can do" he took a scrap of paper and wrote several book titles "You can find these books in the academy's library," he pointed at the scrap "and these ones in the public library" Naruto nodded and gave his thanks to Iruka who smiled at him as he waved his goodbyes.

After going to the academy's library and borrowing two of the books from Iruka's list, Naruto walked towards Konoha's public library which was near the village's gate, thinking of what kind of exercises would these books have. Just as he turned the corner he saw a blond girl in a ponytail wearing a very familiar pink yukata. Haru-neesan was walking away from Naruto she was being flanked by two Konoha shinobi he didn't recognize, one was wearing a white tunic with a green sash and had brown longish hair, and the other was a silver-haired with dark clothes and a tactical vest. Just as Naruto was about to call her, the silver-haired one made a hand seal; his neesan fell backward and the silver hair caught her he said something to the brown haired one, he lifted her in his arms and started jumping over the rooftops.

Naruto felt as if someone had dropped a bucket of ice water on him, he didn't even notice but he was already in pursuit of the bastards, if they had hurt her, he would murder them, Naruto ignored how the edges of his vision seemed to be tinged red.

The bastards were fast, Naruto was proud to say that even if he was stupid he was fast, he was even able to evade the chunin the Hokage sent after him when he had defaced the Hokage's monument.

When the brown haired one touched the next rooftop instead of following the other one, he jumped towards Naruto blocking away his path. Naruto growled, he clenched his fists and ignored the pain his unusually sharp fingernails gave him.

"Naruto," The brown haired man said in a calm voice, Naruto didn't want to hear anything he palmed a kunai and sent it hurling towards him. the Older Shinobi caught it midflight from the handle before it embedded itself on the ninja's chest. "Attacking a Konoha shinobi is a grave crime Naruto you could get expelled from the academy." He said again in his annoying calm drawl

"Shut up Poop-Head! What are you doing to my neesan?" the shinobi's brows knitted together as he whispered ' _Poop-Head'?_

"Haruko-san is being taken to the Torture and Interrogation Division to—" Torture and…. What?! Naruto didn't hear the rest, were they going to torture his neesan? Not if Naruto had anything to say about that, everything around Naruto was colored red, but his five senses were sharper than they had ever been. He could hear Poop-Head's heartbeat and his smell of orange soap and a faint smell of flowers and rice. Naruto frowned why did he smell of Haru-neesan?

Naruto rushed Poop-Head surprising himself with his own speed. He sent a flurry of his best punches and kicks but the white-eyed ninja deflected them with one hand, he counter-attacked with an open palm strike to Naruto's gut sending him flying.

It didn't hurt

Naruto spun in the air and bounced on the wall of a nearby building sending himself towards Poop-Head.

"I won't let you hurt my neesan!" he snarled he sent a score of shuriken directly at Poop-Head, he smirked when they embed themselves in his chest. Poop-Head staggered back as he clenched his chest. Naruto hit him like a speeding cannonball and they both fell to the ground Naruto's Kunai was already at Poop-Head's neck. But then he smirked and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Just as Naruto realized what had happened he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head before everything went black.

O=O=O=O

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was sitting in his office's desk working on a mountain of paperwork when someone knocked the door before opening it. It was Matabe, one of the two chunin guarding his door.

"Hokage-sama, Hasumi-san from team Kakashi is here to report" Sarutobi frowned, had something happened to his other three team members? The mission Sarutobi had assigned to them was a low-level A-Class mission. Even Kakashi alone, being one of Konoha's elite, would have been able to handle it.

"I'll see him now" Matabe nodded respectfully at Sarutobi and went outside, moments later the red-haired Hasumi Yu walked in.

"Hokage-sama" he bowed "I'm here to report that the threat of Gihei's gang has been neutralized" when the Hokage didn't speak, Yu continued "We followed my plan and followed Jinto's gang into their hideout, the entrance was protected by an earth jutsu, unfortunately, Jinto took a hostage so we had to split inside, Hiroshi insisted that he would rescue the hostage while Kakashi-sensei, Shigeno-san and me went after Gihei and Sojuro." The Hokage raised an eyebrow, so civilians had been involved.

"While Shigeno-san and I engaged the lower ranked Sojuro, Kakashi-sensei took care of Gihei, then we reunited with Hiroshi who had already taken care of Jinto, and rescued the hostage" Sarutobi took a drag of his pipe

"Why isn't the rest of the team here?" the genin in front of him hesitated for a moment before answering

"Hokage-sama, the hostage was a blond girl, about fifteen years old who claimed to have been captured by Jinto when she was on her way to Konoha to meet her brother" Sarutobi started to lose a bit of his patience with the boy

"Cut to the chase Yu" the boy nodded

"Yes, Hokage-sama" he cleared his throat "The girl calls herself Uzumaki Haruko, and claims to be the sister of Uzumaki Naruto" the Hokage was speechless for a second before his mind raced on the possibilities that Kushina and The fourth had had a child before Naruto. If that was true then it meant it happened when Kushina was nineteen. When Kushina was nineteen she took a year to go train with the Uzumaki clan. It was a possibility, or she could be a spy trying to get close to Naruto and the Kyuubi.

"Kakashi-sensei and Hiroshi have taken her to Ibiki. Shigeno was sent to keep an eye on Naruto" Sarutobi stood up, two ANBU appeared beside him, one was wearing a fox mask and the other a tiger mask. They followed him through a secret passage that connected his office with the torture and interrogations HQ.

Once there, Sarutobi was greeted by the most peculiar group, Morino Ibiki had his arms crossed and was staring daggers at Hyuga Hiroshi who was carrying a passed out Naruto over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, Kakashi was leaning on a wall reading a copy of Icha Icha Paradise, and Nara Shigeno was hiding behind Hiroshi fidgeting.

"Hokage-sama," Said Ibiki with a bow, Sarutobi acknowledged the man with a nod as he dragged on his pipe "We have the _subject_ in interrogation room B, you can watch the interrogation from observation room 1"

"Ibiki what can you tell me about this girl?"

"The girl seems to be able to use chakra but, her coils seem underdeveloped as if she was never trained, she was carrying a bag with her personal belongings, mostly mundane things you expect a civilian girl her age to carry during a long trip, she also was carrying a series of scrolls infused with chakra seals and a stack of civilian correspondence" when Sarutobi inclined his head to the left in a questioning manner Ibiki continued

"One of the scrolls is directed to the current Hokage of Konoha, and it's sealed with Uzumaki chakra." Ibiki handed him a scroll with the seal of the Uzumaki clan, when Sarutobi touched it he sensed a familiar chakra, it wasn't only Uzumaki chakra, it was Kushina's "The other was unsealed and directed at Uzumaki Haruko, it explained who her parents were and why she was sent to live in a village in the Land of Water."

"And why was that?" asked Sarutobi.

"The fourth Hokage and Kushina-sama hadn't married yet and she didn't want the girl to be targeted by those who seek the Uzumaki chakra, unfortunately when Kushina-sama was ready to take Haruko back again she was already pregnant with Naruto and she couldn't make the trip to the Land of Water; Hanako-san wouldn't give Haruko to anyone else but Kushina-sama" he pointed at a table where a bunch of letters were spread "These letters are correspondence between Kushina-sama and Hanako-san, they will be sent to an information specialist for further study, but in general terms it seems to be all the letters Kushina-sama sent between Haruko's birth and her own death" the Hokage approached the table and took one of the letters and instantly recognized Kushina's messy and scratchy writing style.

A small ray of hope settled in the Hokage's heart. If the girl really was Kushina and Minato's. The fact that she had traveled alone all the way from the Land of Water and survived was no less than a miracle.

"It's that all Ibiki? With all this, the Chakra, the letters we can almost be sure that she is who she tells us, right?"

"Almost, there is an inconsistency in her story," Ibiki said and turned to look at the passed out Naruto on Hiroshi's shoulder

"Naruto seems to know her already, Hokage-sama, he reacted rather violently when Kakashi-sensei applied a sleeping genjutsu, he attacked me and called her neesan, but Haruko-san told us that she was coming to meet with her brother, also I saw her going from the village to Shimakami and when she went back to Konoha she was carrying a bag she wasn't carrying the first time"

"So she had already meet Naruto, right? Ibiki?"

"Yes Hokage-sama I will interrogate the girl and find the truth"

A few minutes later Sarutobi was sitting in front of a one-way window, on the other side sat a blond girl in a pink yukata with her hair in a simple ponytail. When Sarutobi first saw her face almost all doubt that the girl was Minato's disappeared from his heart, the girl looked more like Minato than even Naruto and she had the same Whisker birthmarks as Naruto, a possible side-effect to the exposure to the Kyuubi chakra. Beside him sat Team Kakashi, ANBU Fox and ANBU Tiger were watching him from the shadows.

He saw how the door on the other side of the one-way window opened, and Ibiki entering with a stern aura, Ibiki sat in front of Haruko who in turn looked curiously at the man, Ibiki looked at the stack of papers he had in his hands and started to organize them, this continued for about a minute before he put them in front of Haruko and then pushed them as aside as if making a point of how pointless that action had been. Then it started.

"Are you Uzumaki Haruko-san?" said Ibiki

"Yes—"

"Can you prove it?"

"Yes, I have my birth certificate in—"

"Did you live in Kisosho village the last fifteen years of your life?"

"Of course I—"

"Have you received any training in ninjutsu?"

"No, mom, err… I mean Hanako-san didn't want to—"

"Have you ever visited Konoha before?"

"Ye— wait, no… this my first time in Konoha!"

Ibiki looked at the girl's eyes for a long time, a small droplet of sweat raced down the girl's cheek and then she did the last thing everyone expected her to do.

 _She laughed_. Just like Kushina, she even rubbed the back of her head the same way Naruto _and_ Kushina did when they were nervous.

" _Hehe_ , I guess you guys found out, no surprise since you are shinobi, _you know_ " when Ibiki didn't react, and Sarutobi knew Ibiki was as perplexed as he was, the girl continued

"You see, a day after I reached Shimakami my bag was stolen when I went to the public bath _you know"_ Sarutobi heart thumped in his chest he didn't believe he would ever hear that same speech pattern again "and so I was butt naked with only a towel _,_ so I went to the inn and the old man got mad at me because I didn't have the money to pay for the night so he kicked me out, _you know_ " 

"So not knowing anyone I traveled the whole way from Shimakami to Konoha, _naked_ " she grinned again "hoping my little brother I have never met or his guardians could help a girl in trouble _you know_ " suddenly Haruko goofy aura disappeared and was replaced with a cold demeanor that would have scared anyone else but Ibiki or Sarutobi"It really surprised me to find him almost dying of a fever" the girl stared at Ibiki but the man didn't flinch or blink at her

"Can I see my brother?"

"No," said Ibiki

"Why?" she paused "it's because of the Kyuubi?" Sarutobi was impressed at how Ibiki didn't react at that, the man was a professional, then the girl grinned mischievously "don't worry, don't worry I know that that is Konoha's best-kept secret, it said so on mom's letter to me, at least let me know if he is fine" she said with concern in her voice

"Why did you lie about being In Konoha before?"

"Eh… well I had to sneak in, I didn't know if that would be considered a crime _you know_ " she rubbed the back of her head again, Ibiki surprisingly shook his head the girl didn't even realize the significance of that simple action. Ibiki stood up and left the room without saying a word the girl stood up and followed him.

"Hey wait! At least bring me some water" she stopped following Ibiki when the door closed, she narrowed her eyes and whispered ' _asshole_ ' Kakashi snorted at that, she sat back in the chair and put her palms on her chin and her elbows on the table and started humming a song

Sarutobi recognized it as a song Kushina sang during her pregnancy, right now Sarutobi had little doubt that the girl was Kushina and Minato's, Ibiki entered the room and let out a heavy sigh

"Ibiki?"

"It's hard Hokage-sama, the girl looks a lot like the fourth Hokage and acts a lot like Kushina-sama" he frowned "I'm inclined to believe that she is saying the truth, I couldn't detect any deceptions"

"I must agree with you Ibiki," said Sarutobi "Everything points that the girl is telling the truth, Kakashi?"

"… maybe if we take a blood sample to confirm it completely?" said Kakashi in his usual bored tone

"It's already done, we will have the results in a few minutes." Answered Ibiki, in that moment a knock came from the door before opening, a young chunin came carrying an envelope with the seal of Konoha medic-nin corps.

"Yokoi-san, do you have the results," said Ibiki

"Yes Sir" Yokoi opened the envelope and started reading "the result of the blood test confirms that the girl is Kushina-sama and the Fourth Hokage's, it also confirms that she inherited the Uzumaki's bloodline chakra. Sarutobi rubbed his beard before nodding away the chunin.

"This confirms it, the girl is indeed the fourth's legacy." everyone nodded "With her having the Uzumaki chakra we can't send her to live back in the Land of Water and risk her falling into the wrong hands" Sarutobi eyed Kakashi so he knew he was referring to the mysterious group that had been doing inquiries on the jinchuuriki "What do you think Hiroshi, is Naruto really attached to her?" Hiroshi jumped a bit as he was addressed directly

"Yes, Hokage-sama, when he attacked me his speed increased tenfold from what normally have seen him use, that can only be because he was trying to protect someone important to him"

"I worry that Naruto had attached himself to the girl so quickly, maybe our hands-off approach wasn't the best" nobody answered the Hokage and he nodded to no one in particular, I'll talk to the girl myself "Nara Shigeno, Hasumi Yu, Hyuga Hiroshi" called Sarutobi, the three genins straightened their backs "the fact that Naruto and Haruko are the fourth's or that Naruto is The Nine-Tails host are S-Rank secrets. Revealing this information to anyone is considered treason to Konoha" he paused and stared severely at the genin "Do I make myself clear"

"Yes Hokage-sama" the genin answered in unison, Sarutobi nodded in approval "Now Ibiki, I wish to talk to the girl"

"Yes, Hokage-sama" Said Ibiki, he walked Sarutobi to the interrogation room, he was followed by ANBU Tiger and ANBU Fox. When they entered the room the girl's eyes widened and she sat straighter in her chair, she stopped humming and put her hands on her lap. Sarutobi smiled at the girl and she gave him back a gentle smile much different than the grin he had given Ibiki before.

"Uzumaki Haruko-san"

"Hokage-sama?" she said hesitantly

"I'm Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage of Konoha, we were able to confirm your identity and I wished to speak with you" the girl grinned at him

"Of course Hokage-sama, it's not like I have any appointments for tonight," she gave him a toothy grin

"Right." Said Sarutobi taken aback a bit "First, what is what you wish to do when you meet with Naruto again?" he asked

"Ideally I would love to live with him, I mean he is living alone and only eats take out, he has terrible table manners, he seems starved of attention and when I found him he was dying of a fever" she frowned "why wasn't anyone watching him? I expected for you to at least have him watched by a chunin"

"You are right Haruko-san—"

"Call me Haru, please, Haruko-san sounds, Icky" she made a face

"You are right Haru, I wanted Naruto to have his freedom, that's why I didn't put anyone to watch over him" Sarutobi looked at the wall where the one-way mirror was and nodded. A few seconds later the door slammed open and an orange blur passed him and tackled the girl making her fall backward on her chair

"Haru-neesan! Are you all right? they didn't torture you did they?!" Naruto was hugging Haru from the waist his face buried on the girl's chest, he pulled back and looked at her probably searching for injuries

"NARUTO! Get off!" She said pushing Naruto away, she knocked Naruto's head making him wince a bit, she grinned at him and he grinned back "I'm fine! It is torture and interrogation but they just interrogated me" Naruto helped Haru stand up and when they both sat Naruto didn't let her hand go, she looked at Naruto and then gave Sarutobi and pointed look as if saying _see what I mean_.

"Well, I guess that decides it, Haru, Naruto and you can live together, I will see to increase Naruto's stipend so you can buy food for the both of you" Naruto beamed with a wide grin and jumped with his fist pointing upwards

"We did it!" Naruto yelled and Haru rolled her eyes with an amused expression. As they left the room, the members of team Kakashi were waiting, Haru eyed Hiroshi and her cheeks went a bit pink before she frowned to herself. Hiroshi took a step forward as he approached Haru

"Haruko-san—" Naruto put himself between Haru and Hiroshi his hands extended in a protective manner

"What do you want with my neechan Poop-Head?" several things happened in succession Hiroshi frowned and his cheeks took in a red blush, both Yu and Shigeno fell to the ground laughing, and Kakashi eye-smiled as he let out a snort and Haru gasped

"Naruto!?" Haru said surprised at Naruto's hostility.

"This Poop-Head hit me really hard" Haru's head snapped to Hiroshi, it almost looked painful, her eyes narrowed, Hiroshi took a step backward his forehead started sweating

"ah— no… it, was because Naruto saw when we took you here and followed us, I tried to calm him down but he wouldn't listen and we had a little fight" he said all this in one breath, his eyes fixed on the girl in front of him. Yu and Shigeno where rolling on the floor trying to grasp for air and Kakashi continued with his amused eye-expression

"I see… you didn't mean to hurt him, right?" Hiroshi shook his head "and you Naruto? Did you want to hurt Hyuga-san?" the stern voice the girl used made her sound older than she actually was, and it made Naruto look at Haru with a bit of awe and fear

"Eh, just a little bit…" he said while rubbing the back of his head, Haru karate-chopped him on the head "Naruto, they are ninjas of the Leaf, you can't just go attacking them… but thank you for protecting me" she said as she rubbed Naruto head, then she bowed to team Kakashi

"Thank you for what you did earlier, and Hyuga-san sorry for my brother's behavior"

"No, it's—"

"Right now I'm really tired so I will be leaving for our home if that's ok Hokage-sama?"

Sarutobi nodded "You had a long day, Just come to see me tomorrow, at noon will be fine"

"Yes, Hokage-sama. Hyuga-san, thank you again" she bowed, took her rucksack from a nearby table and left the room, Yu and Shigeno finally recovered from their laughing fit, Yu put an arm around Hiroshi.

"Damn, I would like I feel sorry for you but, I really don't … _Hyuga-san_ " Shigeno started laughing again, Hiroshi just let out a sigh as he freed himself from his teammate's half-armed hug.

O=O=O=O

 _What the hell was that? Why had Harry's heart throbbed when he was near Hyuga-san, has it anything to do with this new body, maybe it was the hormones? Suspension bridge effect?!_

 _No, no, no, no, no! No way in hell it couldn't be that it surely was something else. He had been in a really traumatizing situation surely it was just that, the alternative was just too scary to contemplate._

Harry took a deep breath as she and Naruto walked hand in hand towards Naruto's… their apartment. She finally had made it, at least now she would be able to take care of the kid.

Harry looked at him and remembered how vehemently he defended her from Hyuga-san, maybe in this new, weird and dangerous world, Harry could live a peaceful life with her new family.

She smiled to herself as they walked the streets as the moonlit streets of the village.


	6. Realization

In a dimly lit office a door opened, a man wearing a cat mask and a brown hooded cloak entered the room. He kneeled in front of the desk and lowered his head.

"Danzo-sama" when the other man didn't answer he continued "I have the report you asked for," he handed a folder to the other man who was covered in bandages, Danzo opened the file and stared at it intently. He removed a photograph from the file and examined it.

"Is it true then?" Said Danzo in a low raspy voice, the masked shinobi nodded

"The girl is indeed the fourth's" Danzo put down the photo on the desk as he stood up. The photo showed a pretty blond girl walking beside a shorter boy with the same shade of hair, Danzo walked to the large window on the sidewall of his office, from where he could see the entirety of Konoha. He let out a deep sigh.

"I want you to keep an eye on her" he turned and stared at the masked ROOT member "I want daily reports, and if she is a threat to Konoha we will deal with her"

"Yes, Danzo-sama"

After the masked man left, Danzo stared at the photograph on his desk, he frowned.

"You are a sentimental old fool, Hiruzen" he whispered into his empty office

O=O=O=O

The sound of birds chirping in the morning was getting annoying; as well as Naruto's loud snoring and how tight he was hugging Harry. The light of the morning sun filtered through the window and reached the right angle where it hit Harry directly in her face, she groaned. _Damn you happy sun let me sleep a little bit more!_ She tried to stand up but Naruto vice-grip made her fall on the wooden floor.

"Naruto!" she hissed, Naruto stirred a bit, and Harry lost her patience and shook him "NARUTO!"

"Haru-nee? What's happening?" the boy blinked twice

"Let go!" the boy let Harry go, still a bit confused sitting on the wooden floor, Harry stood up and watched as the boy fell sideways on the floor and resumed snoring, Harry let out an exasperated sigh, but his mouth quirked a bit.

He looked around the small six tatami room, there was a small _single_ bed was on the left wall, an electric stove was on the opposite side, a dresser and a closet were side-by-side and opposite of them, a work desk that served them as a dining table, there were only two doors, one to the outside, and another to the small half bathroom. The small home was cozy in a cramped sort of way, better than Harry's cupboard under the stairs but worse, much worse, than her own dorm room at Hogwarts.

Harry looked down at Naruto's sleeping form and decided that they needed to rent a bigger apartment, she couldn't keep sleeping on the same single bed as Naruto. She would need to get a job as she didn't think the Hokage would be willing to increase Naruto's stipend by that much.

Harry went to his rucksack and retrieved a pair of black shorts and a gray button up shirt, she gave the handmade yukata she was wearing a whiff and decided that she would go and take a bath in the nearby public bathhouse _,_ she looked at the clock. It was quarter past seven, today was Saturday; Naruto didn't have to go to school on weekends. Harry prodded the boy with her bare feet.

"Oi, Naruto!" the boy stirred but didn't wake up, _was he really that tired?_ Harry decided to let him sleep.

Harry let her hair flow down her back and made her way to the bathhouse, she was carrying soap, shampoo, a small towel, a big one and a change of clothes in her rucksack. When she entered the building she was greeted by a spindly old grandma with thick glasses and a head covered with white hair arranged in a severe bun, kinda like McGonagall. The room itself was twice as large as her apartment, the floor was laden with the same softwood floorboards, and the walls were painted in a warm and soft reddish tint that almost looked pink. There was a vending machine beside a set of benches where some old men were drinking from small white plastic bottles. In front of Harry, there was another wall with two entrances each one covered by a curtain, one red the other blue.

 _Harry froze_ , the kanji for 'male' and the one for 'female' stared at him almost mockingly

It was not that she didn't know how a public bath worked in this world, _she did have Kushina and Minato's knowledge_ , it simply hadn't clicked with her that _now_ Harry was female, shehesitated for a second, now she— she _did_ _look_ female or rather she _was,_ she couldn't just go and barge into the male section without getting called a pervert and possibly get into some trouble. She didn't think the Hokage would find that funny, Naruto would.

"Miss, are you going to get in? You are blocking the entrance!" Harry heard the raspy voice of the old grandma from her left, she stared at her and smiled but she really didn't feel like smiling at all.

"Err… yes of— of course" Harry gulped as she walked forwards, past the entrance with the red curtain and into a changing room. The first thing she noticed was that there were other people, other naked people. Women. There was an older woman, probably past her forties removing a green blouse, two little girls that were already stark naked running circles around the older woman, another girl, a petite one, no older than Harry with short brown hair and small, mean-looking eyes. Harry remembered the girl from Hyuga-san's team. Harry averted his eyes from the girl as she removed her underwear.

 _Uh?_

She looked at the girl again, who was already naked holding a small towel in front of her and walking towards the bathing area.

 _She probably isn't my type_

Looking at the naked girl her ageshe _did_ feel embarrassed, but, not as _that_ one time with Ginny. He remembered when she removed her robes how fast her heart was racing, she felt as if it was going to rip her chest out.

Harry went to a locker and removed her clothes, as she looked at her body she frowned— _it_ really _was a female body_

As soon as she got into the water, _warm_ , _muscle relaxing water_! The brown haired girl looked at Harry with a frown, she remembered that same expression on the girl before, and Harry wondered if she had offended her somehow, trying to be polite Harry smiled at her, the girl confused this with an invitation to talk, the girl made her way towards Harry and sat beside her.

"Haruko Uzumaki-san, right?" the girl said

"Yes err…"

"Nara Shigeno," she said matter of factly, with a proud tone in her voice

There was a small pause as both of them didn't know what to say. Harry, trying to break the awkward silence said the first thing to came to her mind

"How is Hyuga-san?" the girl frowned again, making Harry wonder if she didn't really get along with her teammate, then the girl cocked her head to the left

"I guess he should be fine…" she paused and glanced at the left wall "why do you ask?"

 _Why did I ask about him? Well, because we have nothing to talk about... I guess._

"Nothing in particular… He, He did save my life; so I was thinking about a way to give him my thanks"

"You don't need to worry about that, we were doing our jobs," she said with a clipped voice, _was she mad?_ Harry lowered her body into the water, her face went red when she had to push _her breasts_ down. She didn't know they floated. Shigeno narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms around her smaller chest.

"So, are you really Naruto's sister?" Harry nodded "Isn't he a handful?" Harry looked at the girl for a moment before answering

"Not really, he is just like any other ten-years-old I've met… why?"

Shigeno raised her eyebrows at Harry "You mean don't you know?" Harry shook her head in confusion "The boy pulls pranks on anyone and everyone, not even Hokage-sama is safe from his antics, he had defaced the Hokage Monument so many times that I really lost count, he is the lowest in his class according to my cousin. Yobi-obachan, this bathhouse's owner, kicked him out of here for trying to peek at the girl's bath"

Harry frowned, in part for the information the girl was giving him but mostly for the hateful tone she was using, it seemed that she was trying to convince Harry of something. Harry's frown deepened when she realized what the girl was trying.

"Well, now that I'm here I will make sure he behaves" the girl only scoffed at Harry and Harry, in turn, pursed her lips, feeling her temper rise she stood up accidentally splashing a bit of water on the girl, Nara-san protested

"Sorry, I remembered I need to go to… I need to go."

Harry walked to the locker where she left her rucksack, she had brought a pair of shorts and a button up shirt.

As Harry walked out of the changing area she collided with something solid that smelled of oranges, she lost balance and fell backward, disoriented and with her backside hurting she opened her eyes and saw a big calloused hand in front of her.

"Sorry, Haruko-san, are you ok?" Harry followed the muscled arm all the way up to the gentle if a bit stiff, smiling face of Hyuga-san.

He had dimples.

Harry stared at the dimples on his face for way too long, Harry was speechless, her heartbeat started to rev up like one of those racing cars, she averted her eyes from his face and tried to look anywhere else.

He was wearing a light blue robe, it was halfway open at the chest area and it clearly let see Hyuga-san muscled chest

 _Damn!_

"Are you ok?" Hyuga-san repeated, with a bit of concern seeping into his voice. Harry reached for his hand, out of politeness of course, and as both of their hands touched Harry was sure everybody in the room was able to hear the thumping in her own chest and see her face become beet red. Harry pushed herself up but again lost her balance and fell forwards _what's wrong with me today?!_ Fortunately, Hyuga-san caught her, his hands gripping her shoulders gently, her hands resting on his chest. In that precarious pose, Harry heard the rustle of the cloth against cloth.

"Hey Hiro do you know where I left my— what's going on here?" the voice of the other male member of team Kakashi became mischievous on the last sentence, Harry jumped back again and would have fallen _again_ if not for Hyuga-san grabbing on Harry's arm.

Harry felt her own forearm warm as a spark of electricity passed over all her body, she instinctively jerked her arm free from Hyuga-san's gentle grip. Hyuga-san frowned as a pained expression set on his face, even Hasumi-san face cringed a bit.

"Sorry," both Harry and Hyuga-san said at the same time

"Sorry" repeated Harry "I need to get going" he walked around the tall form of Hyuga-san and set out of the bathhouse and towards her own apartment at a brisk pace which was a little bit short of running, _frantically._

 _No, it can be._ Harry thought as he passed several villagers who frowned at her damp hair, and how she clutched her rucksack close to her chest. _I can't be… attracted to him… or to any other male for that matter._ But a voice inside her mind that sounded exactly like the feminine voice in which she spoke now answered.

 _Why not?_

 _Because… I'm not … I… I like women!_ Her own inner voice was that of his own old body the deep voice of Harry James Potter

 _Do you? Are. You. Sure?_ The female voice answered and Harry knew that that voice was in her own mind and for that reason, she was talking to herself, she hesitated for a second… and that second became a minute as he contemplated the question.

If she had to be honest with herself, Shigeno was pretty, Harry would say that she was, or had been in another universe, _her type_. While she lacked Ginny's fiery red hair and freckled complexion, but her body was as fit as Ginny's and there wasn't anything in her that would make her unattractive, she knew in her previous life she would have ogled at a girl like her or at least taken notice. But this time even with her completely naked beside Harry, Harry hadn't noticed the girl for more than a fellow female.

But when she had met with Hyuga-san's outside the baths, she did notice him, and just remembering his smile made Harry's face feel a bit warm. But then what? What was Harry supposed to do?

She was never going to become male again, her own body was probably already six feet under, not to mention in another universe. She had to live her life with this new body. If she had been Naruto's brother she would eventually have married someone in this universe and start a family on her own. But now with this body, the idea never passed her mind. But she knew eventually… having a family of her own was her dream since she was little, back then she thought, eventually, that day would come, when he was together with Ginny he always imagined living at Grimmauld Place with three red-headed children and a big black dog.

But now she was in this world, with a little brother and a different gender, there was no way to go back and, even if she could, she doubted it would be any better she would still be female.

 _Kushina,_ thought Harry as he pushed a bit of her own chakra

 _Harry,_ the voice of the woman answered

 _What do I do? Why is this happening to me?_

 _It's normal Harry, your body is female and so is your brain only your memories are implanted to it, so it is normal to be scared but remember that the only important thing here is how you feel, if you don't feel comfortable with men you can always try with girls_ _and if that doesn't work you can always become a spinster, as long as you don't hate it._

Harry frowned.

 _Did you hate it when Hyuga-san carried you back to Konoha? Or when he practically hugged you on the bathhouse?_

Harry pondered it for a second, the answer was clear, _no, not really_. Harry turned on the street and walked to her apartment when she entered the house, she noticed Naruto was still asleep on the floor. All her worries flew away with the chuckle she let out as she saw the drool coming out of Naruto mouth.

"Hey, Naruto, let's go grab some ramen to eat?" Naruto sat up so fast that made Harry flinch, but then she let out a small laugh

"Haru-neesan? Did you say ramen?"

"Yeah" she grinned, "I think you mentioned you knew a place?"

O=O=O=O

Hiroshi was stunned as Haruko-san _fled_ from the bathhouse, it was something he did? Was he being too familiar with her?

Hiroshi had given a lot of thought last night that he couldn't even sleep, it was clear that he was attracted to Haruko-san, he realized that after man-to-man talk with both Kakashi-sensei and (unwillingly) Yu, with a bit of joking from Yu and a knowing eye-smile from Kakashi-sensei, but even if he had realized his own feelings for her, it didn't mean a thing if she didn't feel the same, and so far Haruko-san's actions seemed to indicate a serious dislike for him. Hiroshi's heart clenched for a second before he felt someone pat him on his back. It was Yu with an expression of pity on his face.

"Hiro-kun, my most sincere condolences." he said clearly fighting a grin.

"Shut up." said Hiroshi with a sullen look on his face, Yu put one arm over his shoulder in a half armed hug and with the other made a motion to indicate the horizon, which in reality was the left wall of the bathhouse.

"There are plenty of fish on—"

"Seriously, shut up." the sound of rustling cloth made both boys turn to look at their other teammate, Shigeno, she stared at both of them; Hiroshi's sullen expression and Yu _'serious but I'm about to roll on the floor laughing'_ one. She let out a sigh and put one hand on Hiroshi's shoulder

"Did you get rejected already?" she said deadpan, Hiroshi simply narrowed his eyes at her while Yu snorted

"No," he said through clenched teeth

"Well hurry up then," she said both Yu and Hiroshi frowned at her "We still need to go to Ichiraku's right?"

O=O=O=O

As they approached Ichiraku's Hiroshi could hear a very familiar voice chattering.

"Yes, that's right! I am in need of a job Teuchi-san" said a feminine voice "I mean we can't keep living in that cramped apartment"

"whu nut?" said another voice, from a boy, perhaps. The question was answered with a heavy sigh

"First of all, don't talk with your mouth full, second, it is really cramped in there!" Hiroshi didn't hear Naruto's answer because he was distracted by Yu's hand on his shoulder when he turned to look at him, a devious grin appeared on his face, _oh no,_ Yu raced over to the Ramen stand and sat beside Haruko-san without much fanfare, Hiroshi felt another hand on his shoulder this time was Shigeno who looked at him with pity on her face

"Let's go" they sat, Shigeno beside Yu and Hiroshi beside her. Yu didn't waste time and ordered the usual for the team; two beef ramen and one miso ramen. Hiroshi looked at Haruko who had gone very still and at Naruto who was inhaling what appeared to be his second ramen bowl

"Haru-chan" both Uzumakis scowled "How are you doing?" Haruko-san turned a little mechanically and looked at Yu as if it was the first time she had met him.

"Fine…err…" Hiroshi could see Yu's ears turn red, Shigeno snorted and Hiroshi lip's quirked a bit

"Yu! Hasumi Yu! Surely you remember?" he was meet with a confused look from the girl, Yu hanged his head down and, when he wasn't looking, Haruko looked at both Shigeno and Hiroshi and gave them a grin and a wink. Hiroshi's heart skipped a beat.

"Oh right you are that one from Kakashi's team" Yu simply looked at her and noticed the quirking of her lips, he grinned

"Ah yes, yes… anyway… Haru-chan" Naruto scowled again so did Hiroshi "I did overhear that you are in need of a job?" Haruko-san eyes narrowed at Yu

"Yeah," Said Haruko with a confused expression.

"Then, why don't you come to my uncle's shop? He is been looking for a cleaning lady; I'm not sure about the pay, but I'm sure it will be better than in most places" he said and then puffed his chest a bit "Best weapon's shop in the village or the Land of Fire for that matter" Haruko-san eyes widened a bit and her eyes locked with Hiroshi's he gave her, what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Ok, I guess I can try"

"Cool! we can go after we all have finished eating" then he gave Naruto a thoughtful look "He can come too, I guess, he could play with Tenten while you speak with Uncle Tadao"

O=O=O=O

Uncle Tadao turned out to be a man in his mid-thirties, handsome too and apparently the go-to blacksmith for all Konoha ninja, there were other blacksmiths in the village but for the most part, Tadao had an almost monopoly on the weapons market. When he met with Harry and Naruto at first he was dubious but thanks to Yu and Hiroshi he warmed up rather quickly to Harry.

They ended up drinking tea while Tenten showed Naruto where she practiced her kunai throwing. Tadao asked a few simple questions about Harry's skills (do you know how to sweep a floor?) and explained what would be needed of her. Simply speaking, keeping the floor and the outside of the shop clean, this included the windows and walls also greeting the customers and other odd jobs. And after she had a bit of training from Tadao, cleaning the forge room and the small yard between the two buildings.

Harry would be working five days per week from eight in the morning to four in the evening, with meal time, from Monday to Friday. The pay was actually quite better than Harry had expected 35,000 Ryo per month wasn't too shabby and way above average, it would mean that after her first month of working at Tadao's weapon's shop she would be able to rent a nice apartment in a nice part of the village.

So decided it was, Tadao told her to come on Monday at least fifteen minutes earlier so he could give her a quick introduction to what she was going to do as part of her new job.

After an hour or so, Harry and Naruto parted with team Kakashi, they went to their apartment, Naruto still full of energy said he was going to train and Harry declined his invite to come and watch, he left if a bit crestfallen.

Two hours later Harry was laying on the floor bored out of her mind, as time seemed to crawl to an almost stop. When he rolled on her back, her eyes fell on one of Naruto's textbooks, Harry reached for it and looked at the Title

"Introduction to Ninjutsu" Harry quirked an eyebrow and opened the book on a random page there was a diagram with twelve hand-seals: Monkey, Dragon, Rat, Bird, Snake, Ox, Dog, Horse, Tiger, Boar, Ram, and Hare. Besides the diagram that showed the seals, there was a small blurb

 _These are twelve basic hand seals are used to perform ninjutsu and genjutsu, the chakra necessary to perform the ninjutsu is manipulated by hand-seals and the will of the shinobi, each ninjutsu or genjutsu have a different sequence of seals that must be memorized, a skilled shinobi may be able to reduce or remove completely the seals needed to perform the jutsu._

Harry read again the blurb something from it jumped at her but she wasn't quite sure of what, it wasn't until the fourth time she read it that the phrase 'twelve basic seals' clicked in her mind and a memory from years ago came rushing to her mind

The squeaky voice of her Charms Professor, Filius Flitwick, during their first class back when Harry was a pipsqueak eleven-years-old boy

 _"The twelve basic wand movements can be combined to perform any and all magic spells you learn here at Hogwarts, master these twelve basic movements and you'll be able to learn any spell much faster than if you tried to learn them from scratch!"_

"Twelve," she whispered to herself "no way." she looked at the diagram again and something on their form seemed quite familiar "It can't be…"


	7. Sakura

_Rat, Snake, Tiger_

"Lumos!" said Harry sitting cross-legged on the wooden floor, nothing happened. A frown appeared on her face and she double checked the textbook that she had opened beside her. Her frown deepened. She let out a heavy sigh and picked up the textbook, she flipped a few pages and came to the chapter titled "Basics of chakra control"

"To control the flow of chakra for performing a jutsu a shinobi can imagine the flow of a river inside his body" she read out loud, It had been about four hours since she had started trying to perform a spell with chakra and so far she hadn't been successful. She had to go out and bring a small stick to try and remember the twelve basic movements and the motions of the spell she was trying to do. She had written on a sheet of paper a conversion table between hand-seal and wand movement and she was almost sure that she had gotten the equivalences right.

She checked again and practiced each seal separately

 _Rat_

She looked at the seal diagram and corrected the position of her pinky finger

 _Snake_

 _Ah, the left thumb goes on the outside,_ she corrected the position and repeated the seal several times to try to get some muscle memory

 _Tiger_

This one looked good as it was quite simple

 _Rat, Snake, Tiger_ she imagined the flow of water inside her body and felt it moving from her chest through her arms and into the tips of her fingers

"Lumos!" she whispered and a small mote of light appeared on the tip of her right index finger it was faint and flickered from time to time like an old incandescent light bulb, Harry stared at it for a few seconds and a big grin appeared on her face. She jumped up and trusted her fist in the air

"YES!" she made a little fist pump gesture "Fuck yes! I have magic!" she didn't notice the light of her spell had turned off. A lot of things passed through her mind. Things would get a lot easier while doing cleaning and stuff, while she was no Molly Weasley she had learned a few cleaning and cooking spells during her year-long Horcrux hunting trip, also she would be able to defend herself better if something like what happened on the way from Shimakami where to happen again, and she could finally seal the last part of her backstory by apparating to water country and doing some memory charms should the Hokage or someone else go there to ask questions.

 _Rat, Snake, Tiger_ "Lumos" the light flickered again in the tip of her right index finger. She had a grin from ear to ear, then a knock came to the door and she jumped at least two feet in the air. She turned and stared at the closed door of the small apartment. It wasn't Naruto, she hadn't had a chance to teach him that now that he didn't live alone it would be polite to knock the door before entering the single room apartment. The knock came again and she stared at her light-infused finger it was flickering less than before. She racked her mind for the seal that was needed

 _Hare_ "Nox" the light on her finger disappeared she walked to the door and opened it "coming!" she said before opening the door

It was a tall handsome blond shinobi (he was wearing a Konoha headband around his neck), young too, maybe in his late teens earlier twenties, he had long hair, light blue sharp eyes and a really aristocratic looking face, all that was accentuated with a gentle smile, Harry was stunned for a moment, she had never seen a man so handsome outside of TV or magazines.

"…Yes?" she said, the man gave Harry a wide smile that showed a row of perfect white teeth, Harry resisted the urge to cover her eyes and simply narrowed them.

"Uzumaki Haruko-san?" he said in deep melodious voice _isn't there something this guy isn't perfect?_

"Yes" Harry answered while raising one of her eyebrows at him

"I'm Kurosawa Tenma, I'm one of the Hokage's aides; You had an appointment with the Hokage…" he looked at his wristwatch "…about two hours ago" Harry arched her eyebrows as she remembered that the Hokage had asked her to come to his office yesterday just after her release from T&I. Harry laughed nervously as a blush came to her face and her hand went to rub the back of her head

"Sorry I got distracted by… stuff, you know" Kurosawa-san gave her a lopsided smile and inclined his body to the left. That allowed him to see behind Harry, his smile never left his face. It was kind of unnerving.

"Studying, I see" he looked back at Harry after saying that, Harry's blood froze and she hoped it hadn't show on her face, she tried to tame her expression and waited a second before speaking to make sure her voice wouldn't quiver.

"No, actually, that's Naruto's, I was about to clean up," she said while looking at the man in front of her directly into his blue eyes, he held her gaze for a beat before speaking

"Is that so?" and before Harry could answer he continued "The Hokage is still waiting, if it is convenient for you, I can escort you there" Harry didn't see how she could reject the Hokage himself, and by the tone of Kurosawa-san she didn't really have much of a choice. She took a step forward and closed the door behind her.

"Yeah, we can go and see the Hokage" Kurosawa-san nodded, Harry entered the apartment and grabbed a piece of paper and scrawled a note for Naruto in case he came earlier and left at the kitchen table. As she closed the door behind her Kurosawa-san gave her a nod and they started walking towards the Hokage's tower

"Uzumaki-san, do you plan on staying in Konoha?" asked Kurosawa-san out of the blue, Harry looked at him for a few moments considering what kind of person he was and saw no reason not to answer truthfully

"Yeah, I mean, someone has to take care of Naruto, you know" Kurosawa-san put his hands behind his back and let out a grunt

"I guess so" then he gave Harry another of his smiles "I guess I'll see you around the village from now on" Harry narrowed her eyes again as the sun reflected from his teeth, she let out a non-committal grunt

"I guess so" they turned around a corner and they could see the entrance to the Hokage's tower and Harry realized that the apartment was relatively near to it.

"Well if you ever need something or someone to talk, about anything, you can come to me" he pointed his finger to the left at a small house next to a general store "I live there," he grinned "we are almost neighbors" Harry stared at the man for a few moments and nodded

When they reached the tower's entrance they went up to a flight of stairs to the top floor, there was a door with two chunin guarding it, Kurosawa gave the chunin a nod, one of them entered the room and after a few seconds he came out and nodded at Kurosawa.

"You may enter Uzumaki-san," said Kurosawa

"Haru, please, have a seat" the Hokage waved his hand at a chair in front of his desk as Harry entered his office. Harry did as she was told, the old man took a drag of his pipe and stared at Harry for a moment. For some reason, Harry felt as if he was back at Dumbledore's office after getting himself on some silly trouble, like fighting a basilisk or helping an Azkaban convict escape

"I'm Sorry Hokage-sama" Harry bowed her head "I got caught in some stuff and completely forgot about our appointment" the Hokage chuckled, Harry raised her head and stared at him

"Don't worry" he coughed covering his mouth with his fist "first of all, how is Naruto adapting to having a sister?" Harry arched her eyebrows at the question, he expected the Hokage to be someone colder. Then remembered he been quite close to Minato.

"Very well so far, he had been a bit clingy while we sleep but nothing unexpected" the Hokage bobbed his head and put his pipe in the ashtray resting on his desk, then he rested his hands on the hardwood of his desk.

"I want you to ask for a favor" Harry frowned, a favor, it wasn't an order, but a favor "please don't tell Naruto about who his parents were" Harry felt rage rise from the pitch of her stomach, and apparently it showed on her face because the Hokage made a placating gesture with his hands. Harry pushed the ball of fury down her throat along with some nasty words and glared at the Hokage. To the man's credit, he seemed he understood Harry's reaction

"You and Naruto are The fourth's and Kushina's. Apart from the obvious reasons to keep your parentage a secret. Such as the fourth's many enemies. Your Uzumaki blood could also make you two a target for those who aim to steal bloodlines." Harry's irritation abated a little bit as she understood the old man point of view

"But, what if Naruto keeps it a secret…" she trailed off as considered the probability of that happening, looking at the Hokage he probably had reached that conclusion some time ago. "Right I understand Hokage-sama, I'll keep it from him, but I will not lie to him." Harry remembered how her aunt Petunia had lied about her parents "and when I decide he is ready I will tell him everything" Harry stared at the Hokage expecting him to show some indignation, when none came Harry continued "He deserves to know, I already know how much it hurts when someone keeps secrets from you, I won't let him get hurt like that" the Hokage nodded and gave his pipe a deep drag with a proud smile.

"Haru, have you considered becoming a Kunoichi?" the Hokage lifted a palm to forestall her immediate answer "I know," he said "just hear me, when we made the tests to prove your parentage, we found that you have a really high talent for chakra, your body is already well fit and you have the Uzumaki chakra which would allow you to learn some of their hidden jutsu, you could become a great asset to the village and get a considerable amount of money from missions, and be a great role model for Naruto" the Hokage cracked his neck "even at your age if you study by yourself, you could pass the genin exam and be assigned to a Jonin Sensei to continue your training"

"Thank you Hokage-sama, but, no thank you, I don't think I have the mental fortitude to kill another person, and we both know that if I were to become a kunoichi sooner or later I would be forced to take another person's life" Harry took a deep breath "to be honest, I'm not completely comfortable with Naruto becoming a shinobi either, but I think I would have more luck stopping a rampaging ox than making Naruto abandon his dream of taking your job" Harry smirked at the old man and he chuckled in response

"I understand Haru, but the offer will always stand. If you ever change your mind" Harry nodded "have you looked for a job already, I think I could help with that…"

"Actually, Hokage-sama, I'll start on Monday as a cleaning lady for the Hasumi Weapon's shop" the old man tugged at his beard and nodded his eyes squinted in concentration

"I see, good… good" someone knocked at the door and the same chunin from before entered the room

"Hokage-sama!" he bowed deeply "Hiashi-sama is here for your appointment" the Hokage frowned for a moment before turning to Harry

"Ah, well I think we are finished here, Haru, I would have liked to speak more with your but as you can imagine the responsibilities a Hokage are never-ending" Harry nodded, she stood up and followed the chunin outside the Hokage's office. There was a tall man with white pupil-less eyes, a Hyuga, he wore a white robe with a green sash around his waist, he barely spared a glance at Harry but Harry could swear the man's eyebrows drew a little bit together. As soon as Harry was out of the office the man simply strode slamming the door shut, both of the chunin looked at each other with knowing expressions.

Harry walked outside the Hokage's tower, the sun was already going down, and Harry estimated it was about four or five in the evening, probably time for Naruto to be back at the apartment with his stomach grumbling. As she walked there, she heard a shrill voice pierce the calm air of the afternoon

"Naruto! Just leave me alone! You are so annoying!" Harry turned just in time to see a pink haired girl aim a punch towards Naruto's face

O=O=O=O

Sakura was annoyed, her parents didn't understand her, her crush ignored her, her former best friend was trying to snag her crush from her and that Naruto-baka always was annoying her, he was the worst _couldn't he get a hint?_

Sakura entered the weapons shop near the Hokage's tower, she needed to buy a practice Kunai for school, the doorbelland _ringed_ as the old man at the cash register greeted her with a bow and a smile. Sakura smiled back.

"Uhm, Mister, I need a practice Kunai" sakura procured a slip of paper from her pocket "Number 12, Iron, dull edges" Sakura offered the slip of paper to the man who read it.

"Uh, I see but, I don't think this what you want…" the man said "I mean Number 12 is not for your build"

"But—" Sakura tried to argue that Number 12 was what Iruka-sensei asked them for homework

"None of that!" the man laughed, he procured a large Kunai, made of a shiny reflective metal, it had a leathered handle. "This is a Number 14, steel, sharp edges" he looked at Sakura appreciatively "this perfect for a pretty kunoichi like you" Sakura blushed despite herself, the man grinned at her

"But Iruka-sensei—"

"Iruka-kun is a bit harsh with you little kids, he is going to make you sharpen the Kunai, I should know, I have a nephew who is a shinobi now, it takes about five hours to reach the same edge as this one" the man looked at Sakura's hands "Sharpening with a whetstone will give your hands a rough feeling and you may break a nail or two" the doorbell ringed again as Sakura's eyes widened in terror

"Ho-How much is it?" Sakura asked

"Ah, it's a bit expensive…" the man trailed as he rubbed his chin "But for a cute girl like you I can go as low as five hundred Ryo but if—" Sakura eyes widened again, five hundred Ryo was her allowance for three months

"Hey, Just sell her the iron one old man." a harsh voice said, Sakura instantly recognized it as Sasuke-kun's, she turned to see Sasuke-kun staring daggers at the old man. The old man looked a bit uncomfortable being looked down by a boy who was several heads shorter than him "We both know that a steel Kunai isn't worth more than ten to twenty Ryo, Hasumi's sell theirs for fifteen"

The man started to stammer but Sasuke glared at him,

"We can always call for an academy chunin to confirm this if you want." the man eyes widened in horror, he quickly procured two standard kunai made of dull metal and handed them to Sasuke.

"Five Ryo each" the man said, Sasuke took both kunai and put a five Ryo note on the counter, he turned to Sakura and stared at her for a second, Sakura heart skipped a beat as she stared back at those ink-black eyes, then she realized he started frowning, _ah, he wanted her to pay for her own kunai, of course._ Sakuraput her own five Ryo note on the counter and Sasuke handed her a kunai, her fingers brushed accidentally with Sasuke's sending an electrical shock through all her body, she smiled at him, he just nodded and turned around, Sakura followed him clasping the kunai, now dubbed _'Love-Love Kunai',_ close to her chest, as they exited the store, Sakura wanted to give Sasuke her thanks he opened her mouth

"Sasuke-kun?" She asked tentatively, he grunted acknowledging he had heard her "Thank you" he grunted again, he shoved his hands into his pockets and slouched as they walked to gods knows where. She decided then that she would invite him to a date, it was perfect, she could use the excuse of giving her thanks for the help she had given him. The best of all he couldn't refuse, could he?

"Sasu—"

"SAKURA-CHAN!" Sakura cringed but kept walking ignoring the blond boy behind her, she saw how Sasuke's shoulders stiffened and his eyebrows drew together "Ne! Ne! Sakura-chan!" she kept walking until she felt a hand on her shoulder she turned around, her face a rictus of fury

"What!?" she yelled at the top of her lungs, making the blond boy take a step back, and his face cringed. But as always recovered instantly.

"Ne, Sakura-chan where are you going? Wanna hang out? I can introduce you to my sister!" Sakura huffed and started walking away but when she looked at where Sasuke-kun was supposed to be, he was already gone. She then looked at the stupid confused look on Naruto's face. She primed a punch pumping as much chakra as she could on her fist.

"Naruto! Just leave me alone! You are so annoying!"

Just about when her fist was going to connect with Naruto's jaw she felt a sharp pain in her arm, someone had grabbed it by the wrist and was pressing her fingers with impressive strength, and if she hadn't filled it with chakra Sakura was sure that it would have broken the bone.

"What the hell do you think you are doing!?" said a female's voice, when Sakura looked up she saw a girl, an older girl but not really a woman yet. With blond long hair, green eyes that glared at Sakura with fury, indignation and whisker birthmarks just like Naruto's. It was one of his stupid Sexy Jutsu. _But when did he learn to make clones? Wait clones are immaterial!_

Sakura's face must have contorted in fear for a moment because the girl's grip on Sakura's loosened. She took the opportunity and try to free her arm from her grip, she pulled back but the girl's hand tightened again, and she must have been in really bad footing because both of them tumbled backward, and Sakura's head hit the ground and a sharp pain spread through the back of her head. Then the girl fell over her, there was a grunt as Sakura felt how her Love-Love Kunai cut through the fabric the girl was wearing and grazed her abdomen, the girl let out a yell as she rolled over clutching her abdomen, a deep red liquid started oozing out of a wound she could clearly see through her ripped shirt

 _Blood?_ She looked down at her own body, her hand holding the kunai wascovered in blood so was the white shirt she was wearing. She stood up in a jump, her eyes in wild with fear staring at the prone pale form of the blond girl. A small puddle of blood started to form beside her.

Just as shock started to show itself on Sakura's face she felt a sharp pain on the left side of her head, her eyes were unfocused but she realized she was flying sideways and before she couldn't react to anything her back hit the hard concrete of the sidewalk again. Still unable to see clearly she saw a red _something_ speed towards her. The _thing_ was leaking killer intent, even more than what the guest lecturer had shown them when they had the lecture on how to identify it. Just when the red covered almost half of her vision she heard the girl yell

"NARUTO! STOP!" in an instant the red was replaced with an annoying orange and then before she realized it, the orange blur was gone

"NEECHAN!" cried Naruto "What do I do?!" Naruto desperation was almost palpable, Sakura's eyes finally focused as she saw the prone form of the girl, her hand clutching at her abdomen blood flowing out. It was at that moment that Sakura knew she fucked up. The girl was Naruto's sister, Naruto, who was always alone, Naruto, who was an orphan with no family or friends and Sakura had just almost killed her. Sakura lifted her right hand and stared at the blood-soaked kunai, the blood dripped into the handle and into Sakura's hand. Her eyes widened and she threw it away, the kunai made an accusing clinking noise when it fell into the hard cold concrete of the sidewalk.

Sakura looked at her blood covered hands and the emotions rushed up. She felt her eyes fill with tears as she started to sob

"I'm sorry, I'm Sorry, I'm Sorry" Sakura started repeating as if it was a mantra that would protect her from demons or monsters. But nobody was paying attention to her, the first few civilians started to gather around the fallen girl as Naruto looked desperate

"Help! Someone help my neechan!" then from nowhere a shinobi wearing a white robe fell beside the siblings.

"Haruko-san?" the shinobi said fear creeping into his voice, his white pupil-less eyes wide in shock

O=O=O=O

Hiroshi was feeling down as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop, as much help as Yu was willing to give him (with no small part of teasing, by the way) he really didn't see any hopes with Haruko-san. That's without counting that he had zero experience with girls. Just how exactly did you make a girl like you? Yu had said that Hiroshi didn't have to worry about it, that he just had to be himself, but he thought that sounded way too generic to actually work. Maybe if he asked his father… no, the old man had married his mom by a way of an arranged marriage, he probably had the same experience with girls that Hiroshi himself.

Hiroshi was distracted from his musings when he heard a desperate yell full of stress

"Help! Someone help my neechan!" Hiroshi was mid-jump about fifteen feet in the air, but thanks to his byakugan he was able to see Naruto kneeled beside his sister, she was prone on the sidewalk. When Hiroshi noticed the blood-stained shirt she was wearing, his eyes widened. He pushed some chakra into the air to change direction and fall beside the girl in as graceful as possible not to startle the young boy

"Haruko-san?" Hiroshi looked at Haruko-san she didn't seem to be in much pain and had a kind of annoyed expression on her face, Naruto turned and looked at Hiroshi in the eyes. His blue eyes were filled with tears and his expression was that of a scared child.

"Poop-head! My— neechan is bleeding! Help her please!" the boy pleaded with so much sincerity that Hiroshi didn't even notice the nickname, Haruko-san chuckled.

"Ye-yes" Hiroshi kneeled beside Haruko-san who had a strange expression on her face with a half smirk. Hiroshi decided that right now wasn't the moment to try to analyze what that meant

"Haruko-san, can you lift your shirt?" she nodded and did so, there was a superficial wound on her abdomen nothing serious but these type of wounds tended to bleed a lot, he tried to ignore the fact that Haruko's skin was flawless, how he could see the shadow of her abdominal muscles, or how cute her navel was. Hiroshi tried to remember the first-aid training he had received in the academy; He ripped the sleeve of his robe as a makeup bandage and warped it around Haruko's waist.

"Naruto!" he said firmly, the boy jumped a bit "press your hands here" the boy was by Hiroshi's side in an instant pressing his hands to the bandage where the wound would be. He really didn't need to do that but Hiroshi was sure the boy would feel better if he felt he was helping his sister. Hiroshi reached for his pouch and retrieved a green stick. He pointed towards the sky and pulsed a bit of his own chakra onto it. A green spark flew upwards leaving a trail of green smoke.

It was an emergency medic-nin flare, carried by all active shinobi in the village in case of emergency. Naruto didn't even look at it, his eyes focused on his sister as she whispered him something; words of reassurance that she would be all right. That done and the medic-nin on their way Hiroshi turned to the other problem.

"Who did this?" he asked to no one in particular, he wasn't able to keep the fury from his words, a whimper came from his left and he saw a pink haired girl about Naruto's age, she was crying her eyes out while she whispered something.

"I'm sorry" he hiccupped "I'm sorry, I didn't—" she made a strange sound "I'm sorry" the girl was completely hysteric, Hiroshi noticed the girl's blood covered hands and the Kunai that lay a few feet away from her was also dripping with thick red blood. Hiroshi let out a sigh and walked towards the girl

"Are you hurt?" he asked the girl as gently as he could, the girl's eyes were wild but focused on Hiroshi's

"I didn't mean to— I... I just wanted to…" she hiccupped again and started bawling again, her eyes started leaking tears. Hiroshi put his hands on her shoulders and locked eyes with the girl and with a strong voice he said

"Calm down!" he was one octave away from shouting but it was enough to make the girl stop crying

"What is your name?" Hiroshi asked trying to smile at the girl

"Sa-Sakura, Haruno Sakura," she said, Hiroshi nodded at the girl without letting her shoulders go

"Haruno-san, how did Haruko-san get that wound?" the girl started crying again and Hiroshi tightened his grip on her shoulders, enough to make her stop crying "Haruno-san," he said.

"Na-Naruto was being annoying so… I was going to" she sniffed "his sister stopped me before I could… and… and I… I pulled her! I Had a kunai… then she fell over me—there was blood everywhere and something hit me in the head…" she started crying again "I'm sorry!"

Hiroshi looked at the girl's head and looked at both sides she had a small wound that was bleeding a little, it would probably swell later. Just as he started to think what he could do with his own limited knowledge of first aid to help the girl he heard the unmistakable sound of shinobi touching the sidewalk from a high jump

"We saw the signal, what is the medical emergency?" said the voice of a woman Hiroshi turned to look at her, she had brown hair tied in a loose ponytail, she was wearing the green uniform of Konoha's medical corps, her companion a young man with short-cropped green hair, black squinty eyes was looking at Haruko-san bleeding form.

"It's a superficial wound, but I don't have the tools to stop the bleeding, I already applied a bandage but I think it may be necessary to disinfect the wound" Said Hiroshi, the medic woman nodded at her companion, in an instant the man's hand was covered in green chakra, he kneeled beside Naruto when he didn't move, he opened his mouth to say something but Hiroshi spoke first

"Naruto-kun, let the doctor heal your sister, you did well" Naruto looked at Hiroshi and then let out a sigh, his shoulders sagged a bit and he moved away the medic-nin started working on Haruko's wound. Meanwhile, Haruko was looking at Hiroshi like if it was the first time she had saw him, Hiroshi decided to look away before he started blushing like a schoolgirl.

He turned his attention to the sobbing girl in front of him and put a hand on her shoulder

"Hey, does it still hurt?" Haruno nodded between sobs "This girl also needs medical attention, hit to the head" he stated simply, the female medic-nin lowered herself to examine the pink haired girl, while she continued to say she was sorry, the medic-nin stared at Hiroshi questioningly and he stared back with a blank expression he then shrugged.

Hiroshi lowered himself beside Haruko, she looked a bit clammy and pale but he hoped it was just because of the shock and not because there was something wrong with her health.

"Are you ok Haruko-san?" Haruko took a moment to answer, she was hugging Naruto who was mumbling something into her shoulder, she was caressing his head and murmuring something into his ear.

"Yeah, I think it was just a flesh wound, Hiroshi-kun" Hiroshi's eyebrows arched at the familiar form of address

"Ah… yeah… I'm glad" he felt like a bumbling idiot, by this point Naruto had fallen asleep, the female medic-nin spoke up

"Everything seems to be fine with the girl, but I would prefer to take her to the hospital to make a more thorough analysis, hits to the head are always serious business." She turned to her companion "Akito" the man, Akito, nodded and lifted the sobbing girl from the ground into his own arms.

"Uzumaki-san's wound was superficial but it is also a good idea to take her to the hospital and give her some antibiotics and a real bandage," Said Akito and the woman nodded at him.

"Hyuga-san, can you carry the girl to the hospital? I'll carry the brat he seems he would be lighter"

Hiroshi nodded and cradled Haruko-san as he had done already. He watched as both medic-nin started jumping from rooftop to rooftop towards the Konoha's hospital

"Are you ready Haruko-san?" Hiroshi asked

"Haru," she said, Hiroshi looked at her a bit confused not understanding what she meant "call me Haru" she smiled and Hiroshi's heart skipped a beat.


	8. Friend

Harry wanted to kick herself, how had she been so stupid to jump and try to stop a shinobi… well a shinobi in training when she, herself, had barely any fighting experience, but of course she wouldn't let anyone harm her little brother.

 _Uh, she had become fond of the little brat rather quickly…_

Anyway, that was why she found herself laying in a hospital bed while a nurse… sorry, medic-nin gave her some shots. It was supposed to be something like a blood-replenishing potion and a few antibiotics. The medic-nin smiled at her and Harry returned a polite smile, Naruto was asleep on the bed beside her. He was exhausted, Harry had the theory it had something to do with him accessing the fox's chakra. He had been given a Chakra replenishing shot.

A knock came from the door, and before the medic-nin could even answer, the door opened to reveal a black-haired shinobi with a green flak jacket over the standard blue pants and shirt you expect from a chunin, the man glared at the medic-nin making her flinch and scurry away. The man then glared at Harry and but soon enough his face softened a bit.

The man had turned out to be a member of the Konoha Academy's Disciplinary Committee, he had come to question Harry about the events that had transpired that evening. Harry temper reached a new height when the man hinted that Naruto was the culprit of the situation. After a little bit of yelling back and forth, they were interrupted by the Hokage. Who called the whole thing a _'training accident'_ The Hokage then dismissed the man. He stayed a few minutes with Harry to hear her side of the story. When Harry had finished explaining, the Hokage had a grave expression on his face.

He suggested some kind of punishment for the girl that almost killed her but Harry dismissed the idea, it was clear that it had been an accident and she didn't want to get a little girl in trouble for something like that. The Hokage nodded before getting up and disappearing in a flicker of leaves. Harry wondered if it was something like apparition. When the medic-nin entered the room again Harry asked her if she could see the girl that had stabbed her. She nervously nodded and took her to the girls' room.

O=O=O=O

Sakura was looking through the window of her hospital room, the sun was already setting, tinting the sky in a warm red color… red just like blood. Sakura's eyes filled with tears at the memory of the blonde girl sprawled on the sidewalk while a stream of blood flowed from her abdomen. The terror etched on Naruto's normally goofy face, the desperation in his voice as he was about to lose the only person in his life he could call family. Sakura let out a sob that was drowned by the sound of the door opening.

The blond girl walked towards Sakura staring directly into her eyes, she resisted the urge to hide under the bedsheets, knowing that apart from being childish it was futile. The blond girl sat beside her bed and Sakura saw from the corner of her eye that a medic-nin closed the door.

Sakura finally had a chance to look at the girl, she did look like one of Naruto's Sexy Jutsu, but if one were to look more closely at her, one would note the subtle differences, for starters and the most obvious thing, was that she had green eyes in contrast with Naruto's blue. Also, her face looked a little bit different than what Sakura remembered from Naruto's jutsu… not that she ever had paid much attention to her classmate's antics. But Sakura felt that she had seen her face before, she simply couldn't put a finger on it. After what appeared to have been hours of awkward silence the girl spoke

"Why?" she said in an almost whisper, but Sakura was able to feel the girl's rage under the surface

"I- I'm sorry… Sasuke-kun gave me a Kunai— he had helped me—" Sakura started to babble, the girl surprised Sakura by narrowing her eyes at her and gripping the armrest of her chair until her knuckles were white

"I'm not, asking about that," she said with a clipped voice "I'm asking you why were you going to hit Naruto with a chakra infused punch!?" Sakura looked confused at the girl, not understating what she meant "Did he attack you?" Sakura eyes widened and her heart started beating faster than ever, Sakura had never stopped before to think if it was even ok to treat Naruto that way, but everyone treated him the same, and nor she or Ino had ever gotten in trouble for hitting the boy.

"Well?" the blond girl said with a tone of impatience creeping into her voice

"Na— Naruto… Naruto was being annoying..." she trailed off realizing that that was not a good excuse "I'm sorry," she said and started sobbing again, Sakura heard a heavy sigh come from the girl before she spoke

"Look" she said and Sakura lifted her head towards the girl "Naruto can be annoying at times, believe me, I've lived with him for a few days already" the girl grinned at Sakura and Sakura returned a weak smile "but he has a heart of gold, and he never hurts anyone willingly, so I don't understand why you need to be too aggressive with him" Sakura opened her mouth to speak but the girl continued "I know, but did you ever stop to talk to him and tell him you had zero interest in him, maybe offer your friendship instead?" Sakura clicked her mouth shut. She remembered every time Naruto asked her for a date, Sakura just punched him some way or another. So not trusting her voice Sakura shook her head. Another heavy sigh came from the girl and Sakura lifted her head to look at her

"Look, you are what? Ten? Eleven? Barely ickle firsties" Sakura frowned at the unknown term "…err what I mean is that you are barely teens... you know" the girl blushed a bit as she rubbed the back of her head "Anyway what I mean is that— look I'm not really good at these things but you should try to consider trying not to be so violent with my little brother" then a spike of killer intent came from the girl and her genial façade disappeared in an instant "or next time you won't be so lucky" then just as fast as it came it disappeared, Sakura's eyes went wide with fear but then the girl chuckled "Oh, no I don't mean something like _that_ , Just now the Hokage dismissed a member of the Academy Disciplinary Committee" she paused and when Sakura looked confused she continued "You _did_ wound a civilian… at best you would have gotten a month suspension from the academy… at worst… a permanent one." Sakura gulped as she considered what would she do with herself if she couldn't become a ninja.

"Well, that's all I wanted to tell you" the girl stood up and left the room, her blond hair trailing behind her... Sakura turned to look at the window the red sky had given way to a dark starry night. Just minutes later her parents came for her, they were worried and asked her a hundred questions, trying to make sense of the problem their little girl had gotten herself on. On their way home, Sakura was unusually quiet as she mulled over what had happened that evening.

O=O=O=O

Later that night after eating at Ichiraku's Harry noticed that Naruto was unusually quiet, the boy hadn't spoken a word since leaving the hospital and only cheered up a bit while eating his favorite food. After reaching home he sat in a corner and started sharpening his kunai.

This worried Harry.

"Naruto…" Harry said tentatively the boy looked at Harry "…what are you doing?" the boy frowned and looked at the kunai in his hand

"Sharpening my kunai," he said and turned his attention to his kunai, Harry closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. She blew air out of her mouth.

"Why are you sharpening your kunai?" Harry said hoping that he wasn't planning on murdering a certain pink haired girl, the boy looked up again with a confused expression

"It's my homework," he said and Harry let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding, so letting Naruto do his 'homework' he opened a big plastic bag and started setting up a futon. She had bought it second-hand yesterday before coming home. She set it up at beside Naruto's bed. She felt a bit tired after all the ordeal of that day so she quickly slipped into it

"Naruto when you are done turn off the lights please" she only received a grunt as answer, Harry closed her eyes trying to sleep with the rhythmic sound of metal scraping whetstone, but she couldn't, not because of the lingering pain in her abdomen nor how unusual felt to sleep so close to the floor, what Harry had in mind was a pair of white eyes that looked warmly at her.

That moment after being stabbed and falling onto the concrete, hearing Naruto's cries for help the first person that came to her mind had been Hiroshi-kun, so the moment he appeared beside her like a summon, she felt completely at ease, she knew Hiroshi-kun would help them, and he did so. Making Naruto 'help' with her wound had calmed the boy considerably, he even went and helped her assaulter. The young girl had been inconsolable, and when he asked who had done this she couldn't stop feeling a bit happy that he sounded angry.

It may be that her own preferences had changed with her body, or maybe not, she wasn't sure yet, but at least she would try to forge a friendship with the Hyuga boy that had helped her two times already. Just as her mind started to fall into sleep she felt someone lay beside her and then hug her tightly, Naruto buried her face into her chest. Harry opened her eyes and looked at the top the Naruto's head.

"Naruto?" she asked and Naruto hugged her more tightly and burrowed deeper into her body, he mumbled something into her chest "What?" Naruto separated a bit

"Can I sleep with you?" he mumbled again before burrowing her face into Harry's body, Harry snorted

"Do I have a choice?" the boy shook his head and Harry chuckled, she simply hugged him back and a whispered "I'm not going anywhere" the way the boy shoulders relaxed was all the confirmation she needed to know that the boy was afraid of losing her "what do you say we go tomorrow and buy you a bento box? So you can bring a homemade lunch to school on Monday?" the boy nodded at the same time his death grip on Harry relaxed. It was in that position that they both fell asleep.

The next day, Sunday, they woke up and had cereal for breakfast. They watched TV for a while after that got boring they decided to go buy groceries, Harry got Naruto an orange bento box with a swirl on the lid, it was the same symbol most Konoha shinobi wore on their clothes. After that they separated, Naruto went to train somewhere, and Harry returned to the apartment to continue her research on magic spells.

Harry was able to cast other spells such as the levitation charm and the unlocking charm, she was getting better at making seals and link wand movement to seal almost intuitively. She even had found a way to reduce the number of seals needed for the Lumos charm to one.

Harry wondered how did this method of using magic compared to the usual wandless magic Harry had never been able to learn it in her past life and came to the conclusion that eventually she would be able to learn to do the same wandless magic the way she remembered.

Contrary to popular belief, you did need a wand to Apparate and one also needed a specific wand movement. Harry tried to apparate for about two hours over a distance of a few feet until she got it right, while she thought she was ready for long distance apparating she still wasn't ready to show up to Land of Water, of course, she could let Kushina handle the memories of the villagers but, she still wasn't sure she would be able to protect herself once she was there.

Harry had bought a notebook, she started writing down all the spells she was able to remember, she wrote in English knowing that nobody could read the language, and just for kicks put in the back of the notebook

 _Property of The Last Potter_

It didn't sound as cool as The Half-Blood Prince, but it would do, she didn't want anyone asking who Harry Potter was if someone ever got to decipher the language. She spent the rest of the afternoon writing down spells, charms and the occasional hex and jinx as they came to her. Naruto came late in the evening tired from training and quite a bit hungry, Harry prepared some rice and baked fish and veggies. Naruto made a face to the vegetables but as soon as Harry told him that he wouldn't grow up he didn't eat them he wolfed them out, making silly faces with each bite.

That night Naruto was a little bit more relaxed but still fell asleep on Harry's futon, Harry just went and sleep on Naruto's bed falling asleep almost as her head touched the pillow.

The next morning they woke up earlier than usual, Harry prepared Naruto's bento while he got ready, and as soon as he left; Harry got ready for her first day at work. She was just glad she didn't have to wear a frilly maid dress or something. Tadao-san had recommended she wear something durable that she wouldn't care to get dirty. She chose a pair of dark green pants made of a fabric similar to denim, and a heavy jacket made of the same material. Harry noticed with pleasure that the jacket and pants hid her figure.

It took her about fifteen minutes to reach Hasumi's Ninja Tool Shop, Tadao-san was already opening the doors of the shop.

"Good morning Haruko-san," said the man with a grin on his face, Harry smiled back

"Good morning Hasumi-san, please call me Haru" Harry had decided that Haru sounded close to her original name so it would be easier to get used to it.

The man laughed "Oh, then you must call me Tadao!" Harry just smiled and nodded not knowing exactly what to say back.

After a quick introduction to her responsibilities, Harry got to work. From time to time Harry would see a shinobi come with a dull or broken weapon and Tadao would sell them a replacement and to buy the old weapon (mostly kunai or shuriken but sometimes swords). This made Harry remember Naruto's homework of sharpening his own kunai. When Harry asked Tadao about this he told her that one of the things that they taught at the academy was basic weapon maintenance.

Most shinobi were familiar with the basic techniques of weapon upkeep, but most of them were for on-field work. Meaning eventually these weapons would end in the trash bin as they could no longer be fixed. Tadao offered, out of good will, to buy the weapon; unfortunately due to the way the metal of the weapons was forged it was extremely expensive to recycle. Tadao had an acquaintance in Suna who brought all his dull weapons for a fair price, the man supposedly had the means to recycle the metal and create new weapons with it.

This got Harry mind working… maybe… but first, she had to get the seals right and do a proof of concept, maybe with one of Naruto's weapons.

O=O=O=O

Hinata woke up that morning with a feeling that something good was going to happen, which was ridiculous; nothing good had happened to her since her mother died. Well, that wasn't completely true, she did meet Naruto-kun months after, at the time her father gave her less attention than even now, so she had wandered outside the Hyuga compound. Naruto-kun had come to her rescue when she was being bullied. She still had his red scarf deep in the bowels of her closet. About three days ago, for reason that she couldn't comprehend, Naruto-kun started to sit beside her, they even had held a few short conversations; mostly Hinata explaining something Iruka-sensei had said. Hinata tried to burn in her mind Naruto-kun's grateful smile in case she never had the chance to see it again.

When she arrived at the academy she sat in her usual place, almost immediately Naruto-kun sat beside her and leaned his head on the desk, he mumbled a 'good morning Hinata'; Hinata face only blushed a little bit and her heartbeat only speed up for a small moment.

"Good morning Naruto-kun" she whispered while a smile crept across her face, she looked at Naruto, and he seemed like something was bothering him, Hinata wondered if she had done something to upset the boy; worried she was at fault somehow, and not wanting to lose the chance to sit beside her crush again, Hinata, in a rare example of determination spoke

"Are you ok, Naruto-kun?" Naruto turned his head without removing it from the desk, blue eyes looked at Hinata, and somehow they looked sad. Hinata started to feel her face warm-up as they stared at each other

"Your face is red, are _you_ ok?" Hinata eyes widened as her hand went to her cheek, it was a bit warmer but she wasn't feeling ill. Hinata's throat closed making her really hard for words to come out, so she decided to nod and close her eyes. That made her feel a bit dizzy

"Naruto" came an almost whisper from a familiar voice, Hinata opened her eyes to see Sakura staring down at Naruto and Naruto _glared_ back at her.

"What do you want?" he said brusquely, Sakura flinched as did Hinata. She had never heard Naruto be so mean to Sakura or anyone, and she had never seen Sakura not answer in a disproportionate violent manner. To her surprise, Sakura just lowered her head

"Can we talk?" The normally blusterous girl whispered, Naruto looked at her for a moment his shoulders tensing and his face scowling; Hinata was completely confused by Naruto-kun's out of place reaction.

"No" Hinata expected Naruto to jump for joy when Sakura spoke to him, but instead his cold response shocked Hinata. Sakura opened her mouth to say something but closed it when Naruto leaned on his desk and buried his face in his arms. Sakura expression changed from calm and depressed to anger and fury in a split of a second, Hinata cringed expecting Sakura to punch the boy but she just stomped away murmuring something under her breath.

For the rest of the class, Hinata noticed that Naruto was barely paying attention to the sensei's lecture; in contrast with how he had been the past few days. Naruto's attention was on the back of Sakura's head, but instead of his normally dreamy expression and blush he had a scowl and looked like he was analyzing something.

By the time of recess, Hinata had tried to encourage herself to offer Naruto-kun to eat their lunch together, now that she had talked to him a bit and spent some time sitting near each other she believed herself capable of inviting the boy.

"Naruto-kun…" she whispered so low she even had trouble hearing herself

"Ah damn!" Naruto yelled while rummaging through his rucksack, Hinata closed her mouth as she stared at Naruto "Where is it? Did I forget it? Nee-chan is going to be mad at me!" the boy pouted and hung his head low

"Naruto-kun?" she asked but Naruto didn't hear her "What's wrong?" she said a little bit louder this time Naruto heard hear her.

"I forgot my bento!" Hinata raised her eyebrows, surprised, Naruto never had brought a bento before "neecha— I… I mean Haru-neesan made it for me" Hinata wondered who was this mysterious girl who had prepared a bento for Naruto, she felt a sting on her chest but ignored it. Seeing an opportunity, she reached for her bag and retrieved her own bento.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata yelled, but it sounded more like a how people normally spoke, Hinata had her hands stretched out offering her own bento box her eyes closed shut

"Ye-Yes?" Naruto said her voice sounded a bit wary, Hinata opened her eyes and looked at Naruto who was watching her like how someone looks at something that might bite them, her cheeks started to feel warm

"A— if... you want, if you want… we can share my bento" she said, Naruto looked at her not as if she was going to bite him, but as if she was a complex puzzle. His head leaned to the left, but a small smile started pulling in the corner of his mouth

"Really?" the awe in Naruto's voice made her feel a lump in her throat, Hinata's couldn't speak anymore so she just nodded heavily. His eyes widened in surprise as did his smile. "Really? Really?" Hinata continued to nod, then suddenly Naruto grabbed her hand and pulled her "Let's go then!" he said.

Hinata wasn't aware of her surroundings, the only thing she could feel, the only thing that existed in the universe was the small area of her skin that was touching Naruto's hand, the rest was a black void of emptiness. She returned to the normal world when the contact stopped, Hinata's face felt like it was burning and she had trouble focusing her eyes. When she finally got herself under control, she noticed they were outside of the academy, sitting on a bench below the shade of a tree, Naruto looked at her expectantly his face in a grin.

Hinata looked at him, not knowing what to do until Naruto-kun's stomach grumbled, she remembered she had offered part of her bento. The bento, fortunately, was still in her hand, she put it on the bench in between them and opened it.

The moment she opened the bento the aroma hit them both; Half of it was simple rice with a spiral in the middle made of red peppers, beside it was several eggrolls and pickled veggies. Naruto stomach grumbled again and Hinata smiled, Naruto smiled back at her but his cheeks were a bit red.

They both broke apart their chopsticks, Hinata started eating, but Naruto didn't, he stared at the food, Hinata started panicking in her mind, maybe Naruto didn't like the food she prepared.

"Naruto-kun? Do- do you not like the food?" she whispered, Naruto-kun snapped his head to look at Hinata

"No, is not that, but is it really ok? I mean would you get hungry if I eat half of your food?" he said fiddling with his chopsticks, his shoulder sagging, _was he worried about her?_

"Ah— I... I actually prepared more food than normal… by mistake, so it will be fine, I think." Hinata lied, she always prepared more food than necessary in case she ever had the courage to offer Naruto to eat with her.

"Really?!" Hinata nodded and Naruto started eating, she followed suit trying to force her hand no to shake each time Naruto made sounds indicating how much he liked her food

"Mmm Hinata it is really delicious, did you cook this?" Hinata nodded again, her face feeling warmer and warmer "one day you will make a great wife!" he said stuffing an eggroll in his mouth, Hinata stared at him, her chopsticks halfway to her mouth with a portion of rice on them, her mouth hung open. It wasn't even necessary to mention that she had a full body flush. Naruto opened his mouth to say something.

"NARUTO!" he filched and the yell coming from behind him, Hinata looked for the source and found a blond girl, an older girl, wearing green jacket and pants, she had green eyes and whisker birthmarks similar to Naruto-kun's. She had in her hand an orange box, she was weaving at Naruto with the other. An instant, she was beside Naruto and Hinata

"Neechan what are you doing here!?"

"Well, you see, I went back home during my lunch break and found out that you forgot your bento!" she said angrily, Naruto filched again, but then she ruffled his hair "So I bought it!" then Hinata's eyes meet the girl's her expression went through several phases in a couple seconds: surprise, understanding, and mischievousness. For some reason, Hinata started sweating a bit.

"Ah—" she said looking at Hinata "You must be Naruto's girlfriend," she grinned showing all her white teeth, Hinata tried to deny it but words did come out of her mouth only small wheezing sound, Naruto-kun choked on his food, but he was able to speak

"Neechan!?" the girl laughed heartily

"I'm joking! _Of course_. I guess she is just your friend?" Hinata watched as Naruto-kun's head snapped to her and stared at her expectantly.

Could she be Naruto-kun's friend? It was one of her dreams to be closer to the boy that she admired so much, but, would she be able to be her friend? She looked at Naruto's expectant expression as it started to fall slowly, then she looked at the blond girl

 _The girl winked at Hinata_

 _She knew_

The girl knew that Hinata harbored more than simple admiration to the boy, unable to stop herself Hinata nodded, Naruto-kun eyes bulged but then he smiled widely

"Aren't you going to introduce me?" the girl said

"Yes!" he pointed at Hinata "neechan, this is Hinata, my friend" Naruto-kun had a grin that went from ear to ear, and his voice sounded proud. "Hinata, this Haruko-neesan, she is my sister"

Hinata stood up and bowed low to the girl "a pleasure to meet you, Haruko-san" said Hinata remembering the etiquette classes her father had drilled her on, then she felt a hand on her head messing her hair

"None of that, Hinata-chan, and call me Haru" Hinata raised her face and looked at the smiling face of Haru. She looked at Naruto-kun "Well Naruto…" she looked at her wristwatch "I would love to stay and get to know your _friend_ " the way she said that word made Hinata flush "but I need to get back to work, invite her home one of these days if you want" she looked at Hinata "Take care of _Naruto_ , yes?"

"Ye-yes!" Hinata answered. After Haru left, Hinata and Naruto also shared the rest of Naruto's lunch box.

"Your sister's food is really delicious," Hinata said

Naruto nodded "Yeah! But… I like yours better!" he said as he stole the last eggroll from Hinata bento-box "just don't tell her or she may get mad"

She wasn't able to speak for the rest of the lunch break

O=O=O=O

Jiraiya closed the scroll the old man had sent him, he looked over his shoulder at the two beauties resting in his hotel bed, they were barely covered by the bed sheet, not that it mattered as the fabric was semi-transparent. He let out a heavy sigh.

"Duty calls" he whispered to himself

His mind was reeling with the content of the scroll, was it possible that Minato and Kushina had a daughter before Naruto? But why would they hide it from him? It didn't make sense. The Hokage seemed convinced the girl was saying the truth but still had asked Jiraiya if he knew anything.

Of course, he hadn't even heard anything about a daughter from Minato. And he didn't think that Minato nor Kushina were capable of hiding something from him. At least not something as big as this. He thought.

Still, his mission was clear, travel to the Land of Water, to the Kisosho village, and ask around for information on the girl.

If it turned out that the girl was saying the truth, he would be happy that Naruto wouldn't live alone anymore. But if she was lying…

Well, he wasn't _the toad sage_ for nothing.

Within the hour, after sending his answer to the Hokage, he set out to Kisosho Village.

He would be there within two weeks.


	9. Toad

Shigeno was not actually Nara by blood, her family died during the Kyuubi attack, her last name back then was Fujiwara, her family got trapped when a pillar fell on their apartment complex, she miraculously survived six hours under the collapsed building remnants. Her stepfather, Shikataro Nara, rescued and adopted her. She was so grateful to him and the Nara clan that she decided to become a ninja and take their last name when she became seven.

She graduated third in her class and was assigned to a genin team with Hiroshi Hyuga and Yu Hasumi, during the last three years they had completed hundreds of missions, becoming a knit-tight team under the tutelage of Kakashi-sensei.

She had developed feelings for Hiroshi; while he was an extremely serious person, so stoic that people that didn't know him attributed it to the proverbial stick-up-in-the-ass that most Hyugas were rumored to have.

But by being on a team with him, Shigeno had learned that Hiroshi was a caring and surprisingly shy boy, he was gentle and helpful, he always tried to help people in need. She had realized her feelings during a mission when the boy had risked his life to protect both Shigeno and their client from a group of bandits.

And now everything was going to hell!

She was standing on the door of her own room, a tray on her hands with snacks, a tea jar and three glasses, on the other side he could hear whispers, Yu was talking to Hiroshi. They all had just returned from a long mission and had decided to come to Shigeno's home to unwind a bit.

"So… now that we are back in Konoha, will you tell me exactly why you were all giddy during the mission?" Said Yu with his usual teasing drawl

"Wa-What are you talking about" Hiroshi stammered, Shigeno rolled her eyes, he had been _giddy_ during most of the mission duration. Always distracted with a foolish smile on his face.

"Hiro-kun" Yu paused for a moment "You were practically skipping when we left for the mission" he paused again, "You were all smiles all the way to Suna" he let out a sigh "And you were muttering ' _Haru'_ in your sleep" Shigeno's hands tightened on the tray she was holding

"I DID NOT!" Hiroshi almost screamed then "did I?"

"Yep, you did Hiro-kun." Shigeno could hear Yu's grin in his voice"So, tell me, how far you got with Haru-chan?" Shigeno heard a small slap "Ouch! What was that for!?"

"Shut up, it's not like that!" Knowing Hiroshi he probably was blushing, there was a small silence between the two boys before Yu spoke

"So" another silence "Come on, don't glare at me like that, aren't we friends?"

" _Right,_ " said Hiroshi with a bit of sarcasm, but after a few seconds of silence he continued "Remember I was a bit late to depart for our mission?" Shigeno remembered that; it was rare for Hiroshi to be late for something important like a mission "Well Haru, got stabbed," there was a sharp intake of air "by an Academy student, it was an accident, I think, the girl was holding a kunai and Haru fell over her. I was passing by and helped her by calling the medic-nins and calming Naruto and the girl who stabbed her" he paused for longer than it was probably necessary

"And?"

"She called me Hiroshi-kun and told me to call her Haru" there was another awkward and long silence

"And?"

"And? Nothing that's all, after I left her at the Hospital I had to hurry to the gates for the mission" Shigeno heard a slap, it was probably Yu slamming his hand on his face, Shigeno would have done the same hadn't she been holding the tray

"Ok, I just decided I will help you, if I don't, you will die a virgin" Shigeno choked with her saliva as did Hiroshi from the sound of it "after we are done here and you report to your house meet me at uncle Tadao's"

"I do not need your help" there was a pause, Yu was probably staring at Hiroshi with the same incredulous look Shigeno had "Ok, I'll meet you there"

Shigeno entered and brought the snacks and tea, they chatted a bit and she noticed how Yu looked at her, after they had their snacks and before they left Yu put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

 _Shit._

O=O=O=O

"SHIKAMARU!" Shikamaru winced as he heard the voice of _that_ woman; he considered his options, he had about five seconds before she came where he was watching the clouds, he could, in two and half seconds jump, to the roof and avoid being detected. He didn't really want to move through.

He could do a quick substitution jutsu with some of the training logs around the corner and flee that way. No, dad was there and he would question why he was running away, and no way in hell he would able to outsmart his dad.

He could wait for her and use his shadow imitation jutsu to bind her, make her hit her head on the door frame; leave her unconscious and flee until things had calmed down. No, mom probably would get mad that he chipped the door frame.

The back porch's door slammed open to reveal Shigeno, she was Shikamaru's cousin; she used to play with him when they were younger until Shikamaru started playing shogi then she didn't want to play with him anymore. He wondered why.

"What a drag" whispered Shikamaru "Shigeno?" he said in a clear voice, the girl sat on the elevated porch beside the Nara boy.

"Shikamaru, I need your help" Shikamaru looked at his cousin and raised one eyebrow; it was rare for her to come ask for help "What can you tell me about Haruko Uzumaki?" Shikamaru frowned

"You mean Naruto Uzumaki?" Shikamaru knew his cousin wasn't the brightest of the Nara but she wasn't that stupid, Kanji where taught in elementary school

"No, Haruko, Naruto's older sister!" she said like if she was trying to explain something a stubborn five years old "You are in the same class with Naruto right?"

"Naruto is an orphan, he doesn't have a sister; Shigeno are you feeling alright?" Shigeno's hand meet her face and she let out a desperate sigh "I Know Naruto is an orphan but, he has a sister, a dangerous boyfriend stealing sister!"

"Boyfriend? What are you talking about? you don't have a boyfriend!" Shikamaru exclaimed "Do you?" he wasn't really sure

"Not yet! And not with that girl stealing my would-be-boyfriend!" Shikamaru stared at his cousin for a moment before laying back on the porch, looking at the clouds

"I don't know anything about that, and to be honest I don't care" Shikamaru closed his eyes as he heard his cousin stomp away muttering under her breath.

"Troublesome"

O=O=O=O

Harry and Naruto entered an easy routine for the remainder of the week, they would wake early in the morning Harry would prepare lunchboxes for the two of them; Harry started giving a little bit more than the boy would eat, with the indication that he needed to share his food with Hinata-chan. When he asked why Harry just smirked at him and answered _'one day, you'll thank me'_ he shrugged in response.

After the bentos were ready Harry would take Naruto to the school gates, not that the boy needed to be taken there; he had managed alone so far, but because, as Harry told him, that was what a family was supposed to do. Harry didn't hear a protest from him since then.

After dropping Naruto, Harry would go to work until her lunch break she would sometime go to the academy to tease Hinata-chan. That girl had a crush bigger than Ginny had for Harry in their second year. Other times she would eat her lunch in a nearby cafe, then Harry would return to Hasumi's and finish her shift. She would return home and practice more magic.

During this time she started working on a side project. When she realized how hard was to repair broken kunai, shuriken, and other ninja weapons. By using Naruto's old and busted weapons she discovered that a simple reparo would bring the weapons to a 'like-new' condition, she went a little further and started trying different charms she remembered from professor's Flitwick's. She found that an unbreakable charm, a featherweight charm, and anti-rust charm were simple enough for her to apply and gave the best results combined together. Until she was able to make the more complex firebrand charm and somehow find a way to apply an auto-shield charm these weapons were a good start.

She was trying to get some offensive spells to work, namely the stunner, but during all week she hadn't been able to do it. It was way more complex than the light charm

Snake. Dragon. Horse. Tiger. Dragon. Snake. Ram.

"Stupefy" Harry narrowed her eyes, nothing had happened. She made a tiger seal

"Lumos" on the tip of her finger a small mote of light appeared, she then shook her hand and the mote floated suspending itself in the middle of the room, _her magic was working, it was probably something to do with the seals_

She went over the seals again, double checking and triple checking each of them and found the error.

Snake. Dragon. Horse. Tiger. Dragon. _Dog_. Ram.

"Stupefy!" from her Ram seal a red beam blasted forwards it hit the wall and exploded with a loud crack leaving a smoking black scorch mark on the wall.

"Shit—" Harry cursed, she hadn't thought about that.

"Nee-chan!" Harry heard Naruto, she turned slowly to see him on the door his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open _double shit._ She didn't want to teach Naruto magic, at least not yet "What was that!?" _shit shit shit_ "That was awesome! Is it a jutsu? Can you teach me?"

"Naruto…" Harry said trying to sound calm "I will teach you if you keep it a secret ok?"

"Why?" said the boy as they entered the small apartment, closing the door with his foot.

"Well I'm a civilian, right? So I'm not supposed to know jutsu, but I'm creating my own, maybe they'll force me to become a ninja and then I won't be able to spend as much time with you" said Harry Naruto's looked shocked for a moment, but then nodded

"Ok neesan, I will keep it a secret" he grinned "teach me!"

After that Harry put Naruto on practicing the light charm, at first he wasn't enthusiastic about learning 'such a boring jutsu' but Harry told him that he needed to learn the basics until he would teach him something cooler

After the stunner incident Harry started training with Naruto, he showed him some Taijutsu movements, and the basic jutsu they taught at the academy, she wasn't able to perform them well but thanks to them she got a better grasp on chakra control.

It was almost two weeks since Harry had come to this world, she was sitting in the café in front of Hasumi's. drinking green tea and biscuits while she read one of Naruto's textbooks on chakra control, Harry had planned to go to Land of Water that night, she already had tested her apparition skills and was almost sure she wouldn't splinch, she had already mastered both the shield charm and the stunner and was almost there with the disarming charm. She thought that was enough to stop bandits and other non-ninja threats.

She hadn't tried to re-learn memory charms, as she hadn't been really adept in that area in her past life, she would let Kushina handle the memories of her friend in Land of Water.

"Haru-chan!" a familiar voice pulled her out of her reverie, she turned to look at the red-head boy who was part of Hiroshi-kun team; the taller Hyuga was following behind him his eyes fixated on Harry. Her heart started beating faster and her face started to feel slightly warm. She hesitantly raised her hand at the same time Hiroshi-kun did, then she frowned. The last time he had seen him had been two weeks ago when she had been almost stabbed by the Haruno girl.

"Can we sit?" said Yu as he sat on the chair in front of Harry, Hiroshi stayed standing looking nervously at Harry, she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Sure," she said blandly, Hiroshi sat beside Yu and he gave him an eye roll, the waitress came to the table and both Hiroshi and Yu ordered tea, once the waitress was gone Yu braided his fingers, rested his elbow on the table and his chin on the back of his hands. A grin appeared on his mouth that made Harry nervous. He opened his mouth but Hiroshi interrupted him.

"How's your wound Haru?" he looked genuinely concerned, the annoyance she had felt earlier evaporated instantly.

"Oh, it already healed," she said "I didn't have a chance to thank you, as you left right after you dropped me at the hospital…" she trailed, Hiroshi and Yu cringed but Yu's smirk returned almost instantly

"ah— I'm sorry Haru" Harry smiled, the boy remembered she had asked him to call her Haru, "when I found you on the street, I was on my way to a mission with my team" Harry nodded, she opened her mouth to ask why she hadn't seen him in two week but the boy kept talking "the mission was a two week border patrol, we just got back this morning" Harry felt a bit bad as he looked at Hiroshi, he looked like he really regretted it, Harry reached for the boy's hand placing her on top of his, rubbing her thumb in circles on his wrist, she felt how both of them shivered at the contact

"Don't worry, I understand" Harry stared at Hiroshi's pearlescent eyes and he stared back, she could see her own reflection in his eyes.

Then Yu cleared his throat, Harry removed her hand from the boy as if it was burning, she looked at Yu who had a stupid smug grin on his face, and at Hiroshi who had reddened ears contrasting with his pale skin

"Anyway" said Yu "I was thinking, that considering that Hiro-kun had saved your life two times already" Hiroshi opened his mouth to say something but he let out a yelp as Yu stomped his foot under the table "That you could do him a favor" Harry frowned and narrowed her eyes at Hiroshi, small tear droplets formed on the corners of his eyes as he massaged his foot, Yu stopped talking waiting for Harry response

"Depends," she said curtly, Yu's smile widened

"You see, Hiroshi and I are going to a party in two days, of course, I'm going with one of my many admirers" Hiroshi snorted and Yu threw him a glare "but poor Hiroshi, is so serious and shy—OW!" this time Hiroshi had kicked Yu under the table, Harry smiled at the boys' antics "— he has no date, can you pity him a bit and got with him?"

"As friends," said Hiroshi, Yu threw him a glare before rolling his eyes, he considered the Hyuga boy and how he fidgeted a bit, he had heard that the Hyugas were a bunch of elitist assholes, but the two of them she had meet were shy and sweet.

"Sure," Harry said before she could stop herself "As friends" Hiroshi smiled widely and Harry heard Yu stifle a laugh.

After that, their drinks arrived and they talked about the _party,_ it mortified Harry that it was apparently a yearly event where prominent families from the village got together to celebrate Konoha's foundation, the event apparently was similar to a festival but it was way more formal, Yu told her that she could either chose to wear a traditional kimono or a more western type of dress. Harry guessed she would wear a kimono, she didn't want to spend money on an expensive dress she would use once. When Harry asked if she could bring Naruto, Yu looked a bit uncomfortable but Hiroshi simply nodded, he looked a bit confused when she asked if Hinata would be there, (she was going with her father and sister). When they finished their drinks Hiroshi and Yu left, Hiroshi with a wide smile and Yu with a mischievous grin.

She may not have realized it herself, but as Harry left the café to get back to work she too was smiling.

O=O=O=O

The next day Harry didn't have to go to work, after Naruto left for school she locked the door, she bound her chest with bandages and put on her green, sturdy jacket and pants she used for work, she also put the black cloak Hiroshi-kun had given her when he had rescued her, the first time, a smile tugged at her lips as she remembered the boy.

She also packed a few kunai and shuriken that were Naruto's extras, they were charmed to be unbreakable and lighter; she stashed them in a leg pouch and tied the pouch to her left tight.

She was ready to leave

She closed her eyes and racked her memory for the place she needed to go, the outskirts of Kisosho village, in the northern part of the land of water. The image of the place appeared in her mind. She made a ram seal pushed her chakra. She felt as if she was being pressed from all directions for an instant before it stopped.

The first thing she noticed was that the air was humid and cold, a gentle breeze made her shiver. She opened her eyes and saw she was in a clearing in the middle of a forest, in this place Kushina used to play with Hanako-san. It was a bit away from the village, this would allow Harry to pretend she was a traveler, with her hooded cloak and baggy clothes she could pass, from a distance, as male, she hoped; she didn't want a repeat of what had happened in Shimakami.

She started to make her way towards the village, Kisosho was a small civilian village of about five thousand people, it was under the protection of Hidden Mist, but because its location, it rarely was attacked. The village was surrounded by a wooden wall about three meters tall mostly to keep wild beasts out. It had a small port were fishing boats produced the majority of the food the villagers consumed. It had a school and marketplace.

It was an unremarkable place.

When Harry approached the gates she was stared down by a man in heavy iron armor, he had a spear in his hands and mean look on his face, Harry thought he could take him in a few seconds.

"What is your business here?" the man's voice was grave he tightened his hold on the spear

"Uh, I'm visiting a friend of my mother, Yamura Hanako" when the man heard Harry's high pitched feminine voice, the grip on his weapon loosened a bit, he tried a little bit harder to look at Harry's hooded face.

"Right, Yamura the Herbalist, do you carry any weapons with you?" said the man still trying to look at Harry's face. Harry opened her cloak and showed him the hostler attached to her tight, the man didn't look at the hostler, instead, he looked up and down at Harry's body as he licked his lips.

"Just a few Kunai for personal protection," Harry said with a bit of heat in her words as she closed her cloak the man, snapped his head to look at Harry, to his favor he looked a little bit embarrassed. He nodded and motioned Harry to enter the village.

Harry walked through the streets, the memories Kushina had left her remembered this place as bright village full of people and life, now it looked like the slums of a third world country, everywhere she looked there was a bar or a brothel, and there were people begging for money on every other corner, and scary looking people staring suspiciously at her.

When she finally reached Hanako-san's house, she sighed. The place looked so run down, the porch grass was brown and the tree in the front was already dead, giving the house a haunted look. She knocked twice before she heard rustling inside.

"Coming" came a gruff voice, the door slammed open to reveal a dark-haired woman, Hanako-san looked old, way older than she really was, there were already some white hairs in her head, and wrinkles in her eyes. She frowned at Harry and stepped back "Who are you?" she said, fear clear in her voice

"Ah, sorry I am Haruko, Uzumaki Haruko" her eyes went wide when she heard the last name

"Uzumaki? Kushina's kid?" she smiled widely "Wait, last I heard she had a boy!" she looked suspiciously at Harry, Harry removed her hood to let the woman take a good look at her face. Her eyes became rounder and her smile wider

"Oh my god! You look just like Minato! But you have your mum's nose!" she stepped aside and beckoned Harry to enter "Come in, come in" Hanako disposition became friendlier, they went to the kitchen table and Hanako offered Harry a seat while she prepared some tea

"I'm sorry, I heard Minato and Kushina died during the nine-tails attack in Konoha" she sat in front of Harry and offered her a cup of tea, Harry took it and drank it, it was sweet and hot. "So what brings you here" Harry closed her eyes and under the table, she made a seal and called Kushina's chakra

Then in an instant later, she opened her eyes.

Hanako was sitting in front of her, their tea lay already cold and half finished, she was looking at the ceiling with a far-away expression, her eyes glassy and unfocused. Harry cleared her throat. Hanako turned to Harry and her eyes watered a bit

"Haruko!" she said "When did you get back?" she stood up and embraced Harry in a tight hug "are you going to stay?" she said grabbing her shoulders and looking at Harry, her eyes full of worry and… hope. Harry gulped trying to undo the knot in her throat. The woman was acting like a mother and Harry just discovered she was weak to that kind of treatment

"Sorry Ha— sorry mum, I just had the chance to come back for a bit and say hi" When Harry saw the pain in the woman's face her throat closed.

"It's fine, dear, at least you will stay the night?" Harry shook her head

"Sorry, I just— I need to get back, can't leave my little brother alone, I also have to work tomorrow" the woman instead of looking sad she took on a proud expression

"It's fine, I'm proud of you" she smiled and Harry smiled back. "At least stay for dinner?" she asked Harry nodded not able to stop herself. The dinner Hanako prepared was simmered turbot, nonetheless, it was delicious as was Hanako's tea.

They talked about things the woman remembered, apparently, in the backstory Kushina had prepared, Harry had a crush on an older boy who lived across the street, he had just gotten married a week ago. She also told her stories of a young Kushina and Minato, things Kushina hadn't given her memories of.

When they finished eating, Harry decided it was time to go back home, Hanako asked her again to stay the night but Harry gently refused. The woman gave her a bento box, a pink one with the Kanji for water in pale red, with leftover turbot.

When Harry opened the door, she found a tall man with long spiky white hair, a horned forehead protector with the kanji for oil, red markings adorned his face, his expression was of utter shock as he stared at Harry down his nose. He was wearing a green short shirt kimono and matching pants over which he had a red haori.

It was Jiraiya The Toad Sage


	10. Snow

**AN: Sorry for the delay, there is a heatwave on my city and my AC broke, I simply couldn't get to write in a 120F room.**

 **Anyway, I did have a chance to fix some of the grammatical errors in earlier chapters, at least the ones Grammarly caught. And just so you know English is not my first language, if you see anything that doesn't make sense drop me a line and I will fix it ASAP.**

 **I rewrote the stabbing scene in Chapter 7 (Sakura), thanks to twinbuster2 to pointing out that normal clones are immaterial and there was no way for Sakura to know about shadow clones, I think I like more how the scene ended up.**

 **Also, we go past the 900 follows mark, fun fact: Shewolf1990 was follower #900**

O=O=O=O

Kisosho village was, in Jiraiya's opinion, a depressing place. He liked that there was a brothel in every other corner but he didn't like the overall feel of despair and hopelessness. The gate guard had been a bit pugnacious until Jiraiya adjusted his forehead protector so he could get a good look at it, after that he became cooperative in an instant. He quickly pointed him to Hanako's house.

Hanako had been a childhood friend of Kushina, they both lived in Whirlpool before it was destroyed. During the yearlong training, Kushina used to come to Kisosho to meet with her. It was at that time that Kushina had been pregnant.

That was something Jiraiya had pondered over the past two weeks, in a way it made sense to keep Kushina's pregnancy a secret, Minato at the time hadn't been the Hokage, he was an up and coming Jonin, a very talented one, but not one who had the influence to protect the nine-tails jinchuuriki giving birth, and considering how her second delivery ended up, he understood.

But, it still hurt that he hadn't been told.

And now, their daughter showed up from nowhere and decided to start living with Naruto. _If_ she was really their daughter, and Sensei thought she was, Naruto would have someone to watch over him, something Jiraiya had been unable to do the last ten years.

It was something he regretted.

Years ago, he had offered Sensei to take Naruto on a trip, train him and let him live a normal life. He would be safe in Mount Myoboku. The man had rejected the idea. He wanted Naruto in the village where he would be the safest and where he could become the hero of the village, as Minato had wanted. Jiraiya scoffed mentally at that, it would have been kinder for the boy to live among the toads who wouldn't care about his prisoner.

Jiraiya stood in front of the dilapidated house, the dead tree at the front garden and the peeling paint on the yellowing walls made the house feel like it was abandoned, as he walked to the porch the only sign that the house wasn't was the warm light coming out of the curtained windows.

As he reached to knock the door it opened.

A girl, about one head shorter than him, with blond hair in a ponytail, green eyes, and Minato's face. Her eyes rested for a second on his chest before she slowly looked up until she met Jiraiya's eyes. Her shoulders tensed and her eyes became round and big like saucers, she took a step back, her mouth moving but no words coming out.

Who was she? She had Minato's face and Kushina's jawline and nose, and those eyes even though they weren't Blue, they were Minato's eyes. But if this girl was their daughter, what was she doing here? So far away from Konoha.

It was suspicious

"Who are you?" the girl said she glanced at Hanako "Do you know him?" Hanako shook her head eyes wide in fear as she too took a step back.

"I could ask you the same question," said Jiraiya, frowning at her and using his best stern voice, the girl's eyes darted to his forehead protector, her eyes widened a bit before she lunged at him. Jiraiya reacted to the aggressive movement by preparing a substitution jutsu in case the girl did anything dangerous but as soon as she put a hand on his shoulder Jiraiya was enveloped by darkness, he felt as if he was being pressed from all directions and he lost the sense of himself, for a moment he thought he had underestimated his opponent, but just as the thought came to his mind, his face landed on something soft and squishy, it smelled of flowers and rice. His stomach felt like that one time he had tried of drink Tsunade under the table, he shook his head, opened his eyes but all he could see was green. Then he felt a sharp pain in his groin and the girl pushed him away.

"P-Pervert!" The girl said, Jiraiya mastered the unbearable pain he was feeling, he unsteadily stood up and gasped for air.

Then he doubled over and vomited.

He finished emptying his stomach on the grass, his eyes focused and he realized he was in a forest clearing, he looked at the girl, she was clutching her left shoulder with her right hand, and her left arm hung limply beside her, her black cloak was stained red on her left shoulder, when the girl noticed Jiraiya looking at her she took several steps backward and clumsily wielded a kunai in her right hand.

"S-Stay away!" she pointed the kunai at Jiraiya, he noticed her hand trembling. Jiraiya raised his hands to show he didn't mean her any harm.

"Calm down girl, you'll get hurt" that didn't come out as Jiraiya had hoped, it sounded more like a threat than anything else, the girl spun on her heel, threw the cloak towards Jiraiya creating a black curtain, it was an obvious distraction for something else, Jiraiya had already decided that the girl was at less than genin level by the way she gripped the kunai and how she had tackled him at Hanako's house.

Although she had at least knowledge of some advanced Justus. If whatever she had done to bring them to this clearing wasn't the Hiraishin or something similar he would eat his geta. He rushed towards the cloak, he heard the familiar sound of a kunai flying, without thinking he brought his own up and deflected the lone Kunai and in the same motion he slashed the cloak in half, when he finally got a glance of the girl, she was painfully trying to make some hand-seals, he didn't recognize the sequence, he would bet his forehead protector that it was that same space-time jutsu thing she had used earlier.

She was trying to escape.

Jiraiya frowned, he extended his arm, he knew exactly the seal he needed to stop the girl from getting away, his hand landed on the girl's chest and he molded the chakra needed for the jutsu

"Sealing Jutsu: Five Elements Seal!" Jiraiya felt the chakra on his hand transfer to the girl's chest, the girl brought her hands together but nothing happened, she frowned.

If someone were to walk into the clearing and see both of them, they would probably get the wrong idea.

Jiraiya's right hand was resting on the girl's left breast, he was in a wide stance leaning towards the girl, and she was frowning at her own hands, they stayed like that for a few seconds until the girl's eyes looked at her chest, then at Jiraiya's hand, her frown deepened and cheeks flushed, she brought her right hand backward and before Jiraiya could react the girl smacked him, hard, in the face.

He was sent flying sideways, during his short trip, he felt a little bit nostalgic, it was as if he was with Tsunade all over again, he stuck hard on a tree but the damage he received was more to his pride than to his body.

He gathered himself up and looked at the retreating girl, she had started running towards the tree line, she probably had the idea that she could escape from him, Jiraiya sighed and followed her at a slow pace, using everything he knew about stealth so the girl wouldn't notice, he wanted to observe how the girl acted.

She finally stopped running about ten minutes in, she rested her back against an old tree and thick before sliding down onto the forest's ground, she opened her jacket revealing an _amazing_ pair of knockers bound with bandages, Jiraiya made a mental note to add something like that to his next Icha Icha book, she looked at her own arm it was missing a good part of flesh and blood kept gushing out, she went completely pale and her eyes widened, but she still unbound a strip of bandages from her chest, Jiraiya tried not to focus on that, not too much anyway, she applied it as an emergency tourniquet to her arm.

So the girl had a good base of first aid, _interesting_ , and big boobs, that was interesting too. The girl unbound her chest completely when she noticed some of the markings left by the Five Elements Seal. She frowned and pursed her lips as she tried to scrap it with her finger. Jiraiya almost laughed at that.

Jiraiya noticed how fast she was breathing, she was about to go into shock, not to mention the Five Elements Seal was disrupting her chakra flow, he was surprised that the girl hadn't fainted yet considering her arm was probably numb. She grabbed a stick and started playing with it, Jiraiya frowned, was she going insane? Then she threw it away and started trying to do hand seals, after four seals she touched her chest and said something Jiraiya couldn't hear, nothing happened, she tried this again but her eyes started to close, but she didn't go down.

Jiraiya was impressed

He decided that he had seen enough and used a body flicker to appear next to the girl. The girl tried futilely to stand up, Jiraiya growled at her.

"Oh for the love of—don't you know who I am?" the girl stared at him for a moment before shaking her head, "Really?!" Jiraiya felt insulted, he knelt beside in front of the girl and his _loud_ voice said "I am Jiraiya-sama! Toad Sage from Mount Myoboku!" the girl stared at him with a blank expression "No? Jiraiya-sama of the Legendary Sanin?" the girl's expression didn't change, Jiraiya filled his hand with healing chakra and started treating the girl's wound, it wasn't really that grave as he first had thought "The Village's Madness?... no?" Jiraiya said hesitantly, the girl shook her head minutely "…I did train the Fourth Hokage…" The girl's shoulders relaxed and she let out a sigh, like if a heavy weight had been removed from her shoulders.

Damn you Minato!

"Then, Yo-you aren't going to hurt me or Hanako?" Jiraiya frowned

"Why would I do that?" the girl pointed at her own forehead, Jiraiya frowned, "Because I'm a Ninja?" she nodded and he looked questioningly at her

"Shinobi don't have a good reputation in the Land of Water, I can't expect all shinobi to be nice like those in Konoha, and you don't wear the leaf symbol, Oil?"

"Long story, girl, let's leave that for later, who are you?" he finished mending the girl's arm, he was proud of himself, he was sure it wouldn't leave a scar. The girl stared at Jiraiya before her eyes rolled back and her body rested limply against the tree. Jiraiya sighed. She did keep up for longer than he had expected.

"Well, let's find a way for you to rest"

Jiraiya carded the girl and started his way towards the village

O=O=O=O

When Jiraiya went back to Hanako's house the woman was hysteric, it took some time for him to calm her down, but once he explained who he was (she _did_ recognize his 'Toad Sage' title) she started fussing over the girl, Jiraiya deposited the her on a bed in a room with pink walls, Hanako prepared tea for the both of them while Jiraiya tried to fish for information on the girl. Her name was Haruko, she had received Kushina's last name because Minato was a clanless shinobi, she was born in March Twenty, hence her name, she went to Kisosho Village's elementary school and started her apprenticeship in sewing at fourteen, one day while doing her cleaning chores she stumbled upon one of Kushina's letters and discovered that she had a little brother in Konoha, after a bit of fighting and yelling Hanako let the girl travel to Konoha on her own. That had been three weeks ago.

While Hanako tended to the girl Jiraiya looked around the room, it looked any like any room of an average teenage girl, there was a desk next to the window, several sewing utensils over a half-finished pink yukata, the bookshelf had an assortment of romance novels, teen magazines, and sewing guides, Jiraiya stopped looking around when he heard the girl grunt and stir on the bed.

"Hanako?" Hanako narrowed her eyes, but then smiled gently at the girl

"Haru," she said in a sweet voice "What did I tell you before you left?" the girl paled a bit

"Uh, don't go looking for trouble…" she sighed "I'm sorry, I thought he was going to hurt you" Haru's stomach growled as she said this, Hanako smile widened.

"I Think, I still have some rice and grilled fish dear" she stood up and glanced at Jiraiya, she left behind an awkward silence

"My name is Haruko Uzumaki" Haruko suddenly said, breaking the silence "I'm from Konoha"

"Yeah I know a bit about you," he said in a gruff voice "girl, you are far away from home, why?" Jiraiya tried and failed to avert his eyes from the girl's impressive bosom, she zipped up her jacket up to her neck and frowned at Jiraiya.

"I came to visit Hanako." she was still frowning at him

"Just like that?" the girl nodded "What about that thing you did that got us to the forest?" to her credit the girl didn't flinch, though she looked a bit sheepish. She rolled her shoulder to test it and smiled

"Thank you for healing me"

"You didn't answer my question" Haru's smile wavered a bit

"Well, It's a jutsu I created," she said "I read a few books and came up with it when I read about dad's techniques," she frowned "why?"

 _Why!?_

If it was true that this girl had just created a jutsu that worked like Hiraishin just by reading a few books, it could mean she was the kind of genius that came once every ten generations, this girl, with proper training, could be at the same level of the first Hokage, he needed to play it cool.

"No reason, does it have a distance limit? Does it need any kind of anchor like Hiraishin?" the girl pondered her question for a second

"No, it shouldn't have a distance limit, though I haven't tested it, and I only need to know where I'm going to be able to use it, I guess"

The possibilities for such a jutsu where… limitless

"I see, do you know that finding you here is really suspicious?" the girl gulped and averted her eyes from Jiraiya

"I know, but… I don't want to be a ninja, I didn't want Hokage-sama finding about this jutsu" Jiraiya's eyebrows raised almost up to his hairline, the girl looked again at Jiraiya "I just want a normal life, with Naruto"

Jiraiya thought that that would be a total waste of talent, but the way the girl talked, trying to force her or even lightly push her into the world of shinobi would be counterproductive. Jiraiya let out a heavy sigh

"Do you think sensei would force you to become a Ninja?" Haruko opened her mouth to respond but Jiraiya spoke before she could say anything "The old man isn't like that, he would respect your wishes, and the last thing he would do is force someone to do something they don't want, I have to admit that your jutsu and your talent are impressive, but at most the man would ask you to share your knowledge with other people" Haru' crossed her hands and let out a huff, _stubborn girl_

"Ok, you are going to rest for a bit and then we are going to set out for Konoha"

"I could take us there… but after what happened to my arm…" she trailed as she rubbed her shoulder "that's without considering I can't use my chakra," she narrowed her eyes at Jiraiya "What did you do to me, there are some strange markings on my chest"

"It's the Five Element Seal, it disrupts your chakra flow, it was the less violent way to stop you from running away" he extended his arm towards the girl's chest she pulled away and clasped her hands over her bosom in a protective manner, her eyes almost slits

"What do you think you are doing!?"

"Removing the seal? I need to touch the, erm, general area where the seal was applied…" the girl looked dubiously at him, Jiraiya forced his face into a neutral mask.

"Ok," the girl removed her arms from her chest and Jiraiya reached for them, just as his hands were an inch away the girl said "If you squeeze them I'll teleport you to the moon" Jiraiya gulped as he strengthened his willpower

O=O=O=O

The girl rested for about two hours before she was shaking with unspent energy, hyperactiveness was, apparently, an Uzumaki trait. They had decided against using the girl's Teleport Jutsu so soon after it had taken a good part of her shoulder. They would make their way to Konoha the old fashioned way, walking a little bit and sitting on a boat for a longer bit.

As they left Hanako's house, the girl gave the woman a hug and a promise that she would come back later, the woman, on the other hand, gave them more of that simple grilled fish and a thermos with hot black tea.

they set out at a sedate pace, still unwilling to push the girl after she lost all that much blood, he planned to take a boat to the Land of Fire and walk the rest of the way to Konoha. It was slow but it didn't risk losing an arm or a leg.

They made their way through Kisosho Village. they entered what looked like the bad side of town (and that was saying something considering the state of the rest of the village) there was nothing but brothels, bars, the occasional casino and some abandoned buildings where you could see homeless people congregating, the girl scooted closer to Jiraiya and warped tighter the blue cloak Hanako had given her. The docks where just past the block and if they were able to not attract much attention they would be out of Kisosho's red light district in half a block.

Unfortunately, It wasn't meant to be.

"That's right, little girl, we have some food here, come 'ere," Said the slick voice of an older man

"Yeah we have some toys to give you," Jiraiya turned to see two grown men flanking a little girl, she had black unwashed hair and was a bit on the skinny side, yet you could see she was really cute with those big black eyes and her full pink lips, the girl followed the men unquestioningly. One of the men had a short sword on his hip and the other wore bandages on his fists, civilian law enforcement or Bandits it didn't really make a difference here. Jiraiya frowned as he looked at Haruko. She was staring daggers at the men, releasing killing intent, it spiked when the men, entered a dark alley, one of them was giggling in a way that betrayed his true intentions. Jiraiya frowned feeling a bit of anger but before he could take a step he heard a loud crack.

He searched for the source of the sound and realized that Haruko wasn't at his side anymore

"BASTARDS!" he heard Haruko's voice come from the alleyway "LEAVE THE GIRL ALONE, YOU BLOODY WANKERS!" Jiraiya didn't recognize the last two words but by their tone, he was sure they were insults.

"Damn it" Jiraiya rushed to the alley to help the girl

O=O=O=O

Harry was furious, bloody fucking pissed, even more than when Ron was being an ass during their fourth year, she was so angry her hands shook, she was sure her body was releasing so much adrenaline she was at risk of suffering a heart attack.

She didn't much care

The small pains she still felt on her shoulder and chest a few minutes ago were completely gone, the only thing she was feeling now was fire flowing through her veins, and the pressure of wanting to release magical doom on these bloody arse-lickers. She apparated into the alley with a loud crack.

"BASTARDS! LEAVE THE GIRL ALONE, YOU BLOODY WANKERS!"

One of them, the one with the sword, looked up at Harry, he licked his lips and set his mouth in a silly smirk

"Oh my, girl, do you want some of thi—" the man fell back hitting his head on the alley's cobbled ground as a red beam hit him directly in the chest, the other man, the one with the bandaged hands, stared dumbly at his fallen comrade and only had a second to avoid another stunner.

Harry clicked her tongue

She apparated behind the man, pushed as much chakra into her fist as she could and primed a punch, the man barely had time to react as he brought his arm to protect himself from the train in form of a fist coming towards his face.

Harry's fist connected with the man's face and he flew backward hitting the wall of a building. He slid down and fell to his knees and hands. The man was shaking his head, he was stunned. Harry walked calmly and pulled one of Naruto's enchanted Kunai.

Just as Harry was a foot away from the man, the bandages on his arm uncoiled themselves and curled on Harry's ankles, the man jumped backward pulling the bandages with him and tripping Harry. Harry slashed the bandages as the man bounced on the brothel's wall and launched himself fist first towards Harry, she could see a blue glow on the man's hand

Chakra

Harry apparated thirty feet above and started to fall down, she looked down, the man hit the ground with his fist creating a crater sending debris flying in every direction, without thinking Harry apparated in front of the girl and made several hand seals

"Protergo" a shimmering energy shield appeared in front of Harry just in time for the first pieces of debris smash into it, Harry spared a glance at the girl whose eyes were wide in awe, then she looked at the man, he was now standing, he was in a stance similar to that of a professional boxer.

Harry narrowed her eyes at him and stood up, she sent a stunner at him, but the man avoided it easily and gained a bit of ground, getting closer to Harry.

He was clearly a close range combatant and was being super cautious with Harry's long range attacks, Harry smirked, and she made the seals for a stunner. She rushed at the man, head on, and Harry saw how he smirked at her.

To the man's credit his taijutsu was superior to Harry's, but considering that all Harry knew of taijutsu had been taught to her by her little brother, the dead last of his class and a few Bruce Lee flicks she saw in her other life, it was not saying much.

The man avoided most of Harry's punches and kicks, and Harry blocked most his, It wasn't until the man did a backhand wide strike that Harry saw the opportunity she was waiting for. She clashed her forearm with his, stepping inside the man's guard, she slammed her palm against the man's chest, there was a red flash and the man eyes widened, then rolled back into his head. The man fell limply to the ground.

Harry let out a nervous sigh, she fell to her knees, her whole body was shaking and her respiration was quick, it was probably because she was having an adrenaline crash.

A shadow loomed over her and Harry readied herself to continue the fight until she realized it was Jiraiya. He looked at the men sprawled on the alley's floor and, then at Harry.

"I'm surprised you struggled with these nobodies" he sighed and Harry narrowed her eyes at him. Good, if Jiraiya knows that Harry has no formal shinobi training, he couldn't suspect, incorrectly, that she is some kind of spy or worse, the truth.

"Yeah? Well, my Sensei is Naruto" Jiraiya cringed a bit, Harry looked at the girl she was trembling and Harry realized that the girl was wearing an iron collar with a foot of chain dangling from it.

A ball of fire raised to Harry's throat, she frowned, the girl cringed and tried to draw away from her, Harry steadied her face and tried to smile, even though that was the last thing she wanted to do. He wondered for a moment how Hermione would react to this little girl.

She was able to smile again

She stood up even though her legs were shaking and walked to the girl. She crouched so her face was level with her.

"Where are your parents?" the girl's eyes flashed in pain, before it became an expressionless mask, if not for her dead looking eyes. "I'm Sorry," Harry said and she meant it, and the girl realized for a moment that she was being sincere because her face opened up a bit, breaking her fake mask. "Where do you live?"

The girl looked at Harry, but then shook her head and whispered "nowhere"

"Well then, if you want, you can come live with me"

"Hey—" said Jiraiya but Harry Ignored him

"I have a little brother, but I guess I can take care of you too" the girl's eyes widened in surprise, her mouth hanging open, she started to shake.

"W-Why?"

"Why? Because I don't think a little girl shouldn't have a family and live _nowhere_ " Harry smiled at the girl showing her teeth "What do you say?" the girl's eyes started to water and she started crying

"I'm sorry—" Harry was confused, she looked at Jiraiya and his expression was the same as her "But— I'm not a girl" she sniffed "I'm a boy" _oh_

"Oh sorry, I thought you were… because you are really cute" Harry smirked at the boy "but whenever you are a girl or a boy, it doesn't matter… if you still want, you can come live with me" the boy's sobs increased in intensity as he nodded

"Ok, err… what's your name?"

"Haku, my name is Haku"


	11. Maid

"You can't take him with us" Jiraiya crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at Harry, he was standing at the alley's entrance; his board figure blocking the view of the street.

"Why not? He is so cute!" Harry hugged Haku tightly, his face ended up buried in Harry's chest. His ears turned red as he let out a muffled sound.

"He is not a pet" stated Jiraiya

"I know that!" Jiraiya quirked an eyebrow, she frowned at Jiraiya, "And that's not what I meant, He is alone, we can't just simply leave him here." She bit her tongue, the pain made her eyes water a bit, small droplets of tears pooling at the corners of her eyes, she inclined her head slightly downwards and looked up at Jiraiya, she remembered Ginny doing something like this when she wanted something from one of her brothers and didn't feel like hexing them.

Jiraiya let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose, he crouched beside the man with the bandaged hands and started inspecting him.

"The boy is a citizen of The Land of Water, we can't simply take him to a rival Country's hidden village. What did you do to these men?" Jiraiya was looking at the man's forearm as he frowned.

"They are stunned, won't wake up for a few hours," Harry let go the boy and stared at him, his face was beet red and he was pointedly trying not to look at Harry. Harry grinned at him "and why not? Is there some kind of rule or something?"

"Well… not exactly, but—"

"Well then, I'll take him, what's the worst that could happen" Jiraiya stared incredulously at Harry

"You _didn't_ just say that," he huffed "even _I_ don't say that out loud!" Harry snorted

"You are overreacting" Harry frowned when Jiraiya didn't have a comeback "What's wrong?" Jiraiya was staring at the swordsman's forearm

"Shit" he whispered, in an instant, a kunai was in his hand, his other hand covered the man's mouth. With a swift movement, he slit the man's throat, blood flowed out of the wound as the man's eyes popped open. Terror filled his eyes as his body convulsed in pain.

"What are you doing!?" Harry yelled her face pale at the same time she covered Haku's eyes, but Jiraiya ignored her, he drove the kunai thought the man's ear and gave it a twist, the man's eyes rolled up, Jiraiya he stood and repeated the process on the man with the bandages in his arms.

"They are from an organization known as _the Jackal Syndicate_ ," Harry looked at the man forearm he had a black tattoo in the form of a stylized Jackal's head "They control large parts of the drug smuggling business the Land of Water" He lifted Harry by her armpits like one would do a stubborn child, Harry weakly protested "We need to get away. Fast."

"W-why?" Jiraiya looked serious, his eyebrows furrowed, his shoulders tense and his hand in a fist. He was looking around as if expecting someone to attack them.

"Can you use your teleport thingy without getting hurt like before?"

"I'm not sure, my chakra is pretty low and my arm still hurts a bit, I need to concentrate really hard if I don't want to lose a limb…" Jiraiya, in a smooth move, threw Harry over his shoulder, with his other hand lifted Haku, the boy put his arms around Jiraiya's neck.

"We'll call that plan B then" Jiraiya started jumping from roof to roof much faster than a man his size and age had any right to.

"So, why the hurry?" she said once they landed on the roof of a tall building and Jiraiya set Haku and Harry down, there was an old rusty water tank, and wooden trap door, and lots of trash and dust.

"The syndicate works for a man named Gatō, he is a shipping magnate and he has some ties with a former team member of mine" he looked at Harry who felt a bit confused "you just fought some of this man goons, and used your jutsu, which is really similar to the one The Fourth was known for" he reached for Harry and grabbed a lock of her blond hair "and with this, anyone can make the connection"

"Ok?" Harry still was confused

"I see you didn't inherit Minato's brain" Harry crossed her arms and huffed at him "let's just say it's better if Orochimaru doesn't know about you and your special techniques" Jiraiya reached into his robes and pulled out a scroll, he bit his thumb drawing a trickle of blood, he smeared it onto the paper and did a hand seal. A puff of smoke and several articles of clothing appeared on the floor. "Grab something and change your appearance, the kid too, he is coming with us, can't leave a witness here"

Harry grinned at Haku and he smiled back shyly

O=O=O=O

"Jiraiya, I have a question" Harry walked out from behind the water tank, she was wearing a black and white frilly maid outfit, not the kind you'll see in an old period movies but the kind you find in movies you can't rent unless you can vote or drink alcohol, it had low-cut neckline and a short skirt with lace on the hem, white tight high stockings were held up by a garter belt. Harry was holding a headband with cat ears on her right hand. Jiraiya barely spared a glance at her, he was looking at himself in a mirror, he had used the transformation jutsu to make himself look like an elderly rich man wearing an expensive black and gold kimono. Harry for her part had her hair become a darker shade of blond and her whisker birthmarks had been covered with a light layer of makeup.

"Yes?" the headband hit Jiraiya's face when he turned to look at Harry

"What's the meaning of this?" Said Harry, Haku chose that moment to walk out he was wearing a girl's Kimono, vivid purple with a red and white origami cranes print, he was gathering his hair in a bun and tying it with a red ribbon. He seemed quite skilled at that.

"Why a maid outfit? No, why a catgirl's maid outfit?! Why do you have this?" Jiraiya looked deadpan at Harry for a moment

"Do you really want to know?" he said in a flat voice, Harry gaped at him for a moment

"No" she let out a sigh, "I'm not wearing the headband; I'll take my chances with this oromachu fellow"

Jiraiya chuckled "Orochimaru, and believe me, you don't want to" he looked at Haku, "We need to get rid of that" Harry frowned and looked at the boy, he looked like a nobleman's daughter (Harry had given him a quick clean up with a damp cloth) except for the iron collar he was wearing, before Jiraiya could do anything Harry did some hand seals and touched the collar

"Alohomora" with a click the collar popped open, she could feel Jiraiya's stare on her neck but she ignored it, Harry removed the collar and ground her teeth when she saw the boy's neck was red and raw with some parts covered in scabs. She turned her head at Jiraiya and the man had the decency looking away in a bit of shame. Harry threw away the heavy collar and put a fur collar around Haku's neck.

"Once we get to Konoha we are going to fix that, ok?" the boy nodded still a bit bewildered, Harry turned to Jiraiya "What's the plan?"

"We get to the docks, rent a boat to take us to The Land of Fire, we pretend to be civilians all the way, and we try not to draw attention," Harry stared at the man in front of her for a moment for a second time that day she gaped at him.

"And this," she grabbed the hem of her _short_ skirt "won't _draw attention, right?"_ The man had the audacity to smirk, Harry glared at him.

"Sorry, it's the only thing I had that would fit and could pass as an everyday clothing unless you want to walk around on a school swimsuit—"

"Right, I get it" she huffed, she had been doing that a lot since she had met Jiraiya. She turned to Haku and offered him her hand "let's go"

Jiraiya jumped them down the building into another alley, Harry walked behind Jiraiya while holding Haku's hand; the boy had been unusually silent, maybe he understood that the situation was serious, he even pretended to smile and looked around. Smart boy.

As they made their way towards the docks, Harry noticed the stares the men gave her, but they quickly looked away when they noticed Jiraiya, even though he looked like a man in his sixties he kept his muscular physique, the small amounts of killer intent he was releasing helped.

Once on the docks, Jiraiya approached an old man with a peg leg, he was mooring an old and beat-up wooden ship, he spoke with him for a few minutes. The old man then yelled at a small boy who had been moping the ship's deck. The boy jumped down onto the dock and ran towards the town.

Fifteen minutes later the boy came back accompanied by a group of four men and a woman, they all looked like the pirate crew from a ship one would find in those romance books Hermione liked to read. The ones with the shirtless long-haired guy sweeping the girl off her feet.

The ones she never admitted she read.

The men started preparing the ship for a trip to The Land of Fire, throwing side glances at both Harry and Haku while the captain showed the group their quarters. It was a dingy room with two wooden beds and a bedside table, a small round windows showed the endless sea.

Jiraiya put their bags on the floor and threw himself on one of the beds, Harry sat in the other with Haku

"How long until we reach Konoha?" Harry asked, Haku was testing the softness of the bed, he grinned at Harry, and Harry ruffled his hair

"Two days according to Kagetaka-san," said Jiraiya lazily

"Right, when I can get rid of this?" he pulled at her maid outfit, Jiraiya grinned before opening his mouth "Oh, Shut up!"

O=O=O=O

Harry was flying on a broom, going fast, really fast. The rain fogged the goggles he was wearing, in front of him, the snitch was trying to escape his grasp, he reached for it before his body shook.

"Wake up" the snitch whispered with a gruff voice, Harry's body shook again, she opened her eyes to see the face of Jiraiya with a finger over his lips in a 'keep quiet' gesture

"Wha—" Jiraiya put his hand in her mouth and did a shushing sound

"We got problems," he said as he lifted his palm from Harry's mouth "the crew are planning on killing me" he scoffed "and taking you and the _little girl_ " he glanced at Haku who was sleeping beside Harry, the fact that Jiraiya had called him 'little girl' told Harry what the crew was planning for them. Harry felt bile rise, as she made her hands fist. "Easy, there. As much as I want, and can. We can't go on a killing spree. It would be too suspicious with the two bodies we left back" he let out a sigh "Wake Haku, gently. I tell you my plan"

O=O=O=O

Ohama Kagetaka was having a great day. Just as he had returned from a smuggling run for the Jackals a stupid dirty-rich old man asked for an urgent trip to Fire Country, he was accompanied by a pretty maid with big tits. _'Maid'_ he scoffed internally as if a maid would wear an outfit like that, she was probably an expensive courtesan. And the little girl was her apprentice or something.

Not that it mattered, he had sent Rat to round up the gang, as soon as they laid their eyes on the maid and the little girl, it was clear that they wanted a slice of the pie. That had been yesterday and the gang were already ready to jump the old man, Kagetaka was able to stall them for a night just so they would be away from the coast, no way to escape. He had heard the gang talk in the kitchen about what they were going to do the girls.

Sickos.

Not that he minded, as long as he had his turn and share of the loot; the old man did look loaded.

That was the reason both him and Kori, the ship's weapons expert, were on their way to the guest's room to kill the old man and take the girls to the gang.

Kori knocked on the door but no one answered. He stared at his captain and frowned. Kagetaka nodded and Kori drew his saber and with his shoulder tumbled the door. The room was empty.

"Damn! Where they'd go cap'?" Kagetaka shrugged

"Let's look for them at the deck, we are hundreds of miles away from any land" he grinned showing all his yellowed and crooked teeth "they can't escape".

Kori and Kagetaka found the trio on the deck, they were huddled together, both the girls had tears streaking her faces and the old man had a stern expression. Kori and Kagetaka had been joined by the rest of the gang, Including Rat. They had promised him the little girl's first round as a way of his initiation.

"How did you find out?" said Kagetaka, from the corner of his eyes the man snarled and hugged both girls from their hips in a protective manner

"G-Get away! Don't you know who I am?" Coward, Kagetaka scoffed internally, from the corner of his eyes he saw the members of the gang reading their weapons. Kori had already his saber in hand, Rat drew out the small iron dagger he had used to kill his family, Sho, Hideaki and Goro drew their Kunai. They never became shinobi but they knew their basics, Naoko had her battle hammer ready to crack some skulls. Crazy bitch.

"I don't care who you are, old man, here in the seas, I am God!" the girls started shaking as the old man glanced at the slowly advancing gang. He turned to the hot maid he had beside him.

"I'm sorry Homura, Madoka," he said as tears started to flow through his face. "I'll always love you" the old man kissed the maid and she returned the kiss passionately. For a moment Kagetaka felt as if he was being ignored "I won't let you have them bastard!"

"Hey!" just as they were a few feet from them, the old man turned towards the stern rail, without releasing both girls jumped overboard. The gang ran to where they had jumped only to see the bodies hit the water and sink into the dark water of the west sea.

"Damn!" said Sho

"Someone get a boat we can still get the girls!"

"Impossible, these waters are infested with sharks, if they didn't die by breaking their necks they'll be dead in a few minutes"

"This your fault Kagetaka, I want my fucking pay and a whore too!" said Naoko while brandishing her hammer dangerously close to his head

This day was becoming worse by the minute, fuck.

O=O=O=O

"Are you sure this will work?" said Harry as they were hiding in a cellar far away from their guest room

"Of course, they are pirates and not the brightest I have seen" Jiraiya had dropped his transformation, he was looking through a small circular window. The cellar was near the stern of the ship. Then suddenly Harry saw Jiraya's body fall on the water while hugging and kissing a clone that had taken on Harry's appearance

"W-why I'm kissing you?" Harry said

"It's part of the backstory," he said distractedly "now, can you do it or not?"

Harry nodded "Yes, I can." Harry offered her hands to both Jiraiya and Haku. Jiraiya's was bigger than hers callused and rough and his grip was strong without actually hurting her, Haku's hand was soft and smaller and he barely put any pressure.

"Grip tighter Haku" the boy compiled and his grip tightened on Harry's hand. Harry closed her eyes and concentrated on her apartment. The next moment she felt as if she was being squeezed through a garden hose, she felt a pain on the side of her abdomen and knew no more.

O=O=O=O

Hiroshi hadn't seen Haru since yesterday when he had been somehow coaxed into inviting her to the festival. He wanted to talk to her about the 'friends' thing and make it clear that he didn't just want a 'friend only' relationship with her.

He had gathered all his courage to come to her apartment, Yu had somehow found the address. Hiroshi didn't want to know how. really.

Just as he was about to knock on the door a crashing sound came from the inside, he quickly activated his blood limit and saw three figures inside. A small, medium and a larger one. Hiroshi gathered his chakra on his right leg and kicked the door open after throwing the bouquet of flowers he had brought to Haru to the side.

What he found inside made him stop in his tracks.

There was a small girl with black hair and an expensive looking kimono she was curled on the floor and emptying her stomach on the floorboard her eyes danced around as if she was dizzy.

Haru was on her back, wearing… _was that a sexy maid outfit?_ Her eyes were closed and she looked pale. Then on top of her—

Hiroshi blood ran cold with rage

A brute of an old man with a mane of white hair was holding Haru's arms to the floor, his knee between her legs and his large body looming over Haru's smaller one. It was clear what the man intended.

"You bastard! Get away from her" Hiroshi launched himself towards the brute with a Juken strike aimed at the man's head. But the man was faster than he looked in a smooth movement he grabbed Hiroshi by the wrist and tossed him upwards, His back hit the ceiling but instead of bouncing and falling to the floor he got stuck there.

He tried to move but his hand and legs were glued to the ceiling, he glared at the man and the man started lazily at him.

"Who are you?" he said, but Hiroshi didn't answer "Are you her boyfriend or something?" despite his situation Hiroshi blushed. "Damn, a Hyuga, Not bad girl!" he looked down at Haru, and Hiroshi, thanks to his byakugan was able to see him frown, he focused on Haru and instantly knew something was wrong with her. She was breathing heavily and her skin was deathly pale, he blushed as he saw through her clothes, but his red face became pale when he saw the large gash on the side of her abdomen, it was dripping blood.

"What did you do to her?" Hiroshi struggled futility against whatever the man had done to glue him to the ceiling, the man ignored him and kneeled beside Haru, his hand became covered in green chakra, was the man healing her?

"I can't heal this," he huffed "hey Hyuga boy is Hyuga Hideki still working at the hospital?"

"Hideki-sama?" Hyuga Hideki was the best doctor Konoha had, thanks to his water affinity and his mastery of the Byakugan, his skill was told to be only second to Tsunade-sama of the Sannin, he rarely treated anyone outside of the clan, and if he did he either charged a high price, or left the person in his debt (the latter was done only when the person had the influence or prestige that a favor from them was worth it)

"Yes boy, Hideki-kun, tall Hyuga, brown hair, is a little bit obsessed with Tsunade-hime" that description fit Hideki-sama rather well.

"Yes, he… he still works at the hospital" then he looked at the man his white long hair and his red clothes and the forehead protector on his head

"Ji-Jiraiya-sama?" Hiroshi's face hit the ground as he was released from whatever Jutsu the Sannin had used on him

"The one and only, Kid, now, we don't have time. I need you to look after Haku, I'll take Haru to the hospital, if you see Naruto I want you to tell him to get there as soon as possible" Jiraiya lifted Haru and held her close to his chest, then before he could react Jiraiya was gone

O=O=O=O

Naruto was worried, Haru-neesan hadn't come home last night, and she hadn't been there when Naruto woke up. He knew she was strong, that she could take care of herself, but a small voice inside his head whispered to him.

 _She left because of you, she realized how stupid you are._

He shivered, he knew Haru-neesan wasn't like. He hoped.

"Na-Naruto-kun" Naruto turned towards Hinata, who was walking beside him, school had just finished and they were walking home, according to Shikamaru, that was what friends normally did. He didn't understand why Hinata had almost fainted when he asked her to walk home together the first time. At least she was getting used to it, after the first ten or so times. She was nice but weird.

"Yes?" he answered

"Do—" she gulped "Do you want to wait for Haru— together?" her face was red and she was pressing her forefingers together, somehow Hinata was able to tell that he didn't want to be alone which was nice, but she still was weird.

"Yeah, thanks Hinata!" Hinata, who was until that point looking at her own feet, snapped her head up and looked at Naruto. He smiled at her and she shyly smiled back. Just as they turned around the corner Naruto saw the door of his apartment open, and smiled, _Haru-neesan is back!_ But frowned when he saw Poop-head sitting on the steps to his apartment with a pretty girl around Naruto's age.

"Hey poop-head what are you doing here?" Poop-head's left eye twitched, the man didn't like the nickname Naruto had chosen for him. Naruto smirked inwardly.

"Naruto," he said with a tight smile, then he inclined his head, a gentler smile set on his face "Hinata-sama"

"Hiroshi-kun" Hinata bowed at poop-head.

"Naruto, your sister is back, she was taken to the hospital by Lord Jiraiya, he told me to take you there as soon as you showed up"

Naruto's felt his heart fall to his feet, at the same time he felt as if someone had dropped a bucket of cold water over him, he opened his mouth to say something but no sound came as his throat was closed

He felt someone shaking him by the shoulders, his eyes finally focused and saw poop-head talking to him.

"Naruto!" he shook him again "as I said, we need to take you to the hospital to see your sister" he let out a heavy sigh "Let's go"

The walk to the hospital was long as it was silent, Naruto's eyes were focused on the ground but he could feel the worried glances Hinata threw at him, he didn't like it, so he tried to ignore her.

Once they reached the hospital they meet a tall man with a mane of white hair and the most ridiculous get up he had ever seen, this was supposed to be Jiraiya of the Sanin.

When Naruto looked at Jiraiya's eyes he, for a second, saw a hint of sadness, it was so fast that he thought he had imagined

"You Must be Naruto, right?" Naruto nodded

"Your sister got hurt by using a space-time jutsu, do you know anything about it" Naruto shook his head, while he knew about Haru-neesan's secret jutsu he wasn't about to tell this man anything.

"Right, unfortunately, something went terribly wrong and she is missing large parts of her internal organs–" Naruto heard Hinata gasp beside him "–Hideki Hyuga had her stabilized but we can't wake her up until we can heal her _completely_ "

"I want to see her!" Naruto said, Jiraiya went silent for a moment before nodding, he opened the door behind him and Naruto walked in.

The slow digital beeping of the machine resounded on Naruto's head as a bell and the sterile disinfectant smell made his stomach lurch, on the bed with several tubes connected to her body Haru-nee looked too small, her skin was pale as a doll and her breathing was shallow

But it was there.

Naruto focused on that.

He focused so much that the corners of his vision started to tint red, but it disappeared the moment he felt a large hand on his shoulder, It was Jiraiya, but his form was wobbly as was the rest of the world

Naruto realized he was crying

"You said you can't wake her up until she is healed" Jiraiya nodded "she can be saved then?" another nod from the tall man "I'll – I'll do anything, so, please, save my sister!"

"Of course kiddo,"


	12. Hug

**Hey! It's me! I'm not dead!**

 **Wow! It's been more than a year! Damn!**

 **For those of you who don't know, I've been writing other Naruto stories, mostly romance and/or real world AU. Check them out! They are: "White Lies", "Mending Hearts" and the one-shot "Sleep with me" you can find them in my profile.**

 **They helped me unclog my writer's block so I could bring you this (It has nothing to do that I finally finished Fallout 4… not at all)**

 **Anyway, I updated the previous chapter's ending to better fit with where I'm taking this story arc.**

 **I also spent sometime proofreading all previous chapters so if you don't know what the frak is going on, now is a good time to give it a re-read.**

After Naruto had calmed down he went and sat beside his sister. He warped his fingers around her hand and focused on the rise and fall of her chest.

The way his eyes looked, his mouth curled down, and his shoulder slumped. Jiraiya recognized it.

 _Despair_

"Oh— Jiraiya- _sama_ , you're _still_ here… and— _him_ " Hideki looked at Naruto down his nose with distaste in his eyes. He had left the room for a few minutes before returning with some scrolls in his hands. Naruto seemed unaware someone had entered the room, his dull eyes fixed on his sister.

"Yes, I'm still here," Said Jiraiya through gritted teeth, he clenched his fists as he tried to suppress his anger "There is nothing you can do for her? Aren't you the best medic-nin in Konoha right now?" Jiraiya's attempt at keeping the sarcasm out of his voice failed miserably

"Is not that simple Jiraiya- _sama_ ," Hideki gave Jiraiya a mocking smirk, Jiraiya narrowed his eyes "the girl has severe internal bleeding, her left kidney, and part of her left lung are missing, her chakra is depleted and it is not recovering, to be honest, I'm surprised she hasn't died already—" the tone he used was one that didn't sit well with Jiraiya.

"Hideki," Said Jiraiya with a dangerous tone making the man wince "let's talk outside" Jiraiya gave Naruto a side glance, and let out a sigh of relief when he realized he was completely focused on his sister.

Jiraiya walked with Hideki outside and closed the door behind him. He spun on the spot and released all the killing intent he had been accumulating.

"Listen to me you piece of shit!" Hideki's eyes went wide with shock, and then fear when Jiraiya grabbed him from the neck and lifted him, his feet two feet from the floor "that brat has gone through so much and you fucking know it! And even though I don't know much about their relationship I'm sure the girl is important to him— you disrespected her in front of him or you don't do your damned best to save her and will kill you" Hideki was struggling against Jiraiya's grip, clawing at his fingers while his face turned purple, when Jiraiya released him he fell into his knees and palms coughing and gasping for air, Jiraiya stared at him and waited patiently as he shakily stood up using the wall as support, he gasped for air again and turned to glare at Jiraiya his eyes wild with fury.

And he shrunk back into himself when Jiraiya glared back.

"I'm glad we understand each other," said Jiraiya in a tone one would use to talk about the weather "now you are going to tell me how to save her," the calm tone Jiraiya used contrasted with the harsh one before. Hideki, still leaning on the wall with his legs shaking glared feebly at Jiraiya

"I- I don't know… maybe…" he rubbed his reddening neck "maybe Tsunade could do it… she— she knows so much better than me…" Hideki made a face as if saying these words physically hurt him

Jiraiya sighed internally, he didn't really want to see Tsunade, he knew she was a mess, even more than himself, but if it meant saving Minato's daughter.

"And why do you think Tsunade can save her?"

"Back in—" Hideki coughed and rubbed his neck "Back in the war, she saved a chunin's life, his injuries were similar to _the girl,_ if there is anyone in Fire Country who could save her, it's Tsunade"

 _As expected, Hideki still respect Tsunade's skills_

"Right," said Jiraiya, _there was no other way then?_ "I need to speak to the Hokage" Jiraiya turned and started walking, then as if he had remembered something he stopped and looked back at Hideki "Remember what I said, Hideki-kun, I was _dead_ serious," and then he walked away leaving a stunned Hideki behind.

O=O=O=O

When Jiraiya entered the Hokage's tower and explained the situation to Sensei, the old mand took a long time to answer.

"Do you really need him with you?" Sensei was sitting on his chair at the Hokage's office, and he was looking dubiously at Jiraiya. The pipe barely hanging from his lips.

 _Probably not, he could convince Tsunade by other means, but he knew that Naruto was very similar to Nawaki. That could help. but seeing how his eyes looked, Jiraiya wanted him to have a hand in saving his sister, it would be important for him, Jiraiya knew it._

"Yes" responded Jiraiya simply, Sensei looked at him expectantly, But Jiraiya didn't really want to explain his reasoning, it was such a pain in the ass.

The silence continued for almost a minute, Sensei pinched the bridge of his nose before letting a loud and deep sigh.

"I need a valid reason, I can't just let Naruto leave the village just like that." Jiraiya rubbed his nose with his thumb and looked away from Sensei, _alright._

"Naruto resembles Nawaki," Jiraiya said, Sensei nodded and pulled at his beard. he took a long drag of his pipe before placing it on the ashtray. For a moment all the lines on his face seemed to become more pronouced. Jiraiya realized that Sensei was really old and that he should be enjoying his reteirment

"Do you plan to use Tsunade's feelings for her late little brother?" Seinsei voice's was neutral but Jiraiya could hear a hint of acusation, Sensei arched a questioning eyebrow at Jiraiya. "that's sneaky, not to mention dangerous"

"I'm a ninja, after all, Sensei" they locked eyes, for an instant he could see the worry on Sensei's face

"And do you think that will help you bring her back?" Jiraiya just shrugged

"Knowing Tsunade anything is possible, at least it won't hurt having him there" Jiraiya rubbed his chin "I'll keep him safe and maybe teach him a trick or two" the Hokage took another drag from his pipe before standing up and walking to the large window on the side of his office. He stared at his beloved Konoha for a few seconds.

"This is going to generate all kinds of problems," he sighed. Jiraiya knew that, thanks to Naruto's status as a Juinchiriki, Sensei needed to report whenever Naruto left the village to his advisors, this included Danzo. "Alright, you can take Naruto on this mission," the Hokage stood up and walked towards the large window "what was your impression of Haru?"

"There are two options, she is a genius, the kind only born several generations, or she is some kind of spy" the Hokage kept silent for a moment so Jiraiya continued, "personally I think she can't be a spy, considering the way she acted in our little trip, she cared too much for Haku"

"She could be a sleeper"

"She could"

"And what about this jutsu she used to travel?"

"It has a ridiculous potential," Jiraiya said, "she took us from the east sea to Naruto's apartment in the blink of an eye, I don't know what kind of limitation it has, but it seems even more powerful than Hiraishin, although its disorienting effects can be a liability in battle" Sensei nodded his eyes closed, Jiraiya knew that the man was thinking things through.

"We'll need to consult Inochi and Kakashi when she recovers"

"Understandable,"

"And about this boy, Haku…"

"He seemed to be some kind of salve— I don't want to think what has the boy gone through but Haru offered to let him live with her and Naruto" the Hokage grunted again looking at Konoha, he pulled at his bread. "We can't return him to Water Country, he saw me kill these Jakal Syndicate grunts, sooner or later the information about Haru would fall on Orochimaru's hands"

"I understand, For the duration of your mission and until Haru recovers he can stay at the orphanage, I'll ask the matron to keep an eye on him" the Hokage finally turned to Jiraiya, then he closed his eyes taking a long drag of his pipe, slowly blowing out the smoke.

"Jiraiya," Jiraiya stood straighter than before knowing an order from the Hokage was coming, an order from his Sensei.

"Bring Tsunade back"

O=O=O=O

As she walked into Haru's hospital room Hinata became concerned. Since the news that his sister had suffered an accident Naruto had been acting strange, or maybe not, Hinata thought she would react the same if her little sister was hurt as gravely as Haru.

It was weird to see Naruto-kun so still and quiet, she liked the Naruto-kun that was cheerful and loud even if other people thought of him as annoying. The fact that Naruto always was smiling was something that gave her strength, seeing him fail and getting up again gave her hope.

But now this grief-stricken Naruto-kun, she didn't know how to feel about, she wanted to do something to cheer him up, but she wasn't sure what could she do.

It was strange, a month ago she would have never dreamed of talking to him, but now they ate their lunch, walked back home and spent a lot of time together.

It was like a dream come true.

But then, what could she do? how could she make Naruto smile again? She tried to search her memories but nothing came. Her family was extremely taciturn and… some would say _cold_ , but Hinata knew there was something— something in the back of her mind, she tried to remember…

It had happened the night after Uncle Hizashi had been sent to Cloud. A few days after her attempted kidnapping. Hinata had been five years old. She had woken up in the middle of the night with her mouth dry after having a nightmare. Just as she walked to the main kitchen for a glass of water she heard a strange sound as if someone was sobbing.

She peeked through the small gap of the sliding door that led to the second tea room, her father was sitting on the wooden floor, his knees close to his chest and his back to the wall, he was gripping a sake bottle with his right hand while his left forearm covered his eyes.

Despite that, she could see the tears streaking down his face

To say that Hinata was shocked would be an understatement. Hinata had never seen her father cry or even look sad, he had always been the perfect head of the clan, the perfect Hyuga. But now he looked like a broken doll on the side of the road.

Then Mother entered the room. Father didn't move from his place. Mother didn't say anything she just walked gracefully towards Father and removed the bottle from his hand and put it aside before sitting beside him. At first, she didn't do anything, she just had her shoulder brushing his, but then, slowly, she grabbed his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

And then her father broke.

He started sobbing as mother hugged him, her hand brushing his hair as his face buried in her chest. Mother started to whisper to Father's ear as she put his hand on her swollen belly. Over time, and little by little father stopped crying and his breathing slowed.

And just like that his normal demeanor returned.

Hinata wondered if she could do something like that for Naruto-kun. Her face started to burn as she imagined herself so close to him, she shook her head, now was not the time to feel embarrassed, Naruto-kun needed her.

She walked towards Naruto-kun and sat beside him pressing her shoulder to his. He turned to her with a questioning look and Hinata wanted nothing more than bolt out then and there. Yet she stood her ground even though her whole body was shaking.

"Hi-Hinata?"

Hinata looked at her lap, then at Naruto's where his hand was resting, she moved her own trembling hand and lightly set it above his. Naruto-kun seemed confused but Hinata was glad he hadn't pulled his hand away.

Hinata's heart was beating so fast that it felt as if it was going to jump out of her chest at any moment, she smiled when she looked at Naruto's confused expression.

"It's—" her voice came out choked and almost inaudible "It's going to be alright Naruto-kun,"

Naruto's expression changed so fast in the span of a few seconds, first, he looked angry, then shocked, then confused and finally her face settled on sad.

"I can't do anything…" He whispered, Hinata held her breath, the tone Naruto-kun used was so desperate and full of misery that she wasn't sure what to say "I'm useless! I'm a failure!" Naruto raised his voice and his eyes started to shine

"Naruto-kun… you— you are strong," Hinata knew it was lame, but she didn't really know what else to say, for Hinata, Naruto-kun was the strongest person she knew.

Naruto-kun stiffened, his face froze, he looked down, his face sad and his normal smile nowhere to be seen.

"I may appear strong to you… but It's just an act— I'm afraid Hinata, I'm afraid of losing Haru-neechan, I'm afraid of being alone like before—" his tears started to flow, then before she could stop herself she warped her arms around Naruto-kun and hugged him tightly.

Naruto went still and rigid as his body tensed, Hinata's chest ached.

"It's alright, Naruto-kun, everyone is afraid, it doesn't mean you are weak…" Hinata ran a hand through his hair and was surprised that it was so smooth "… it means you care…" she whispered as she heard the beating of his heart

"In my eyes you are strong…" Hinata said and Naruto-kun hugged her tighter "Because even though you fail you get up again… for me that's what true strength is" they stayed like that embracing each other for a long time until she heard the door open, she fought the urge to jump away from Naruto-kun, she didn't want him to take it the wrong way, she slowly released him and turned to the door to find Jiraiya-sama looking at them with a grin on his face before sobering up.

"Hey, brat! come with me we need to talk about something…" Naruto looked at Haru, his eyes full of worry but nodded to himself and followed Jiraiya out of the room.

Just as he was crossing the door, the turned to Hinata and gave her a large genuine smile

"Thanks, Hinata!" he turned and followed Jiraiya-sama out of the room leaving a bewildered Hinata behind.

Then she realized what she had just done.

She had hugged Naruto-kun. She had been so close to him that she could still smell the faint aroma of ramen. She had touched his smooth hair and ran her hand through it.

Her face became so hot it felt as she had just caught fire. She covered her face with her hands. Her cold hands became warm in an instant.

Hinata started shaking her head. The only reason she wasn't screaming was that she was aware that she was still in the Hospital.

"What did I just do?" she whispered to herself.

O=O=O=O

ANBU Cat along with his squad had been given the task of cleaning the Jinchuriki's apartment by Hokage-sama. It was a simple task that could probably have been done by a genin team, but Hokage-sama wanted to keep what had happened there under wraps. Whatever it was.

So while Bear and Bird were cleaning the blood from the tatami Cat busied himself tidying up the scattered books strewn around the small apartment. They spent around an hour doing this before Cat noticed a notebook with unknown letters written on it. He held it for a second before glancing at his teammates. They were distracted with their task. He turned his body so his back was towards them and in a swift motion slipped the notebook into his flak jacket

"I'm finished here," he said as he turned to look at his squad mates, they looked up from their work and nodded

"I don't understand why Hokage-sama sent us" Bird said "This is genin's works" he sounded exasperated

"I'm sure Hokage-sama has his reasons, It's our job to carry his orders," Said Bear "Cat, wanna go to the bar after we finish this? I really need a drink" Bear was finishing moping the floor as she said that

"No, I have something important to do," said Cat in his usual deadpan tone.

"Huh? Does our little Cat got himself a girlfriend?" Cat rolled his eyes behind his mask before responding

"Of course not" He smiled to himself as he felt the notebook secure on his flak jacket.

O=O=O=O

"Are you out of you out of your mind Hiruzen!?" Danzo smashed his palm on the Hokage's desk, Hiruzen didn't even flinch, Danzo had always been so predictable. Ever since they were young Danzo had a problem controlling his temper in front of him. Despite that, he valued his advice highly. "are you going to let _it_ get out of the village just like that?"

Hiruzen pinched the bridge of his nose as he mustered his patience. "That's right, I think it will be an important experience for _him_ " Hiruzen empathized the pronoun, Danzo just stared at him unimpressed "his escort has offered to teach him a trick or two" Danzo scoffed

"Jiraya." he said in a despective tone "Hiruzen, you are making a mistake, we are risking Konoha's tailed beast for some random girl?" Hiruzen knew that Danzo probably knew who Haru was, he wasn't as senile to think that his old friend didn't have some ANBU still loyal to him. Why he was acting as he didn't know was a mystery for Hiruzen.

"Danzo, I know you know about Haru, so drop it" anyone else wouldn't be able to see the small change in Danzo's expression. Hiruzen knew him since they were kids. "I'm not asking for your permission, I don't need to, if you remember. I am the Hokage," he raised a hand to forestall Danzo protest "You are my advisor, and I value your advice but this time I disagree with it. So drop it." The last words were said with finality, not leaving space for any kind of retort.

Danzo stared at Hiruzen for a few seconds before bowing his head

"As you wish Hokage-sama" then as he looked up at Hiruzen "I hope you don't regret this" then he turned and left the office. He slammed the door shut.

"I hope so too" he dragged on his pipe and let out the smoke as slowly as possible.

O=O=O=O

As always, he was anxious, every time he had to face his benefactor his body tensed and something heavy sat in his stomach. It wasn't like the man was cruel just for the sake of cruelty, but he could be so cold-hearted and utilitarian that it was always hard to predict how the man would react.

He had been saved –using the term 'saved' loosely— by him, when he was five years old the Nine-tailed-fox attacked the village, his parents and his younger sister died during the attack, some said It had been a miracle that he had survived at all.

It hadn't been a miracle at all.

He still remembered being smothered by the broken body of his mother, she tried to protect him from the falling ceiling of their home. He remembered the blood coming from her mouth as she used her chakra to stop the concrete slab from crushing him, he remembered the smile on her face as she whispered reassuring words.

After being rescued by ANBU his memories became a hazy blur, at the time nobody knew what to do with him, and then, before he realized it he was under the care of that man. there were other kids from his generation that had become orphans like himself, some of them ended up like him.

He owed that man his life, he trained him to become strong and he would repay everything he did for him and more.

That was the reason he was kneeling in front of him, his head hanging low and his face covered with his ROOT cat mask.

"Danzo-sama," he said

"Raise your head" He did as ordered and looked at Danzo, the man's Harsh eyes sent a shiver through his spine and he wondered if he had made a blunder. "I have a problem. Hokage-sama wishes to risk an important asset to our village for the life of the Uzumaki girl" the cold eyes of Danzo became even more gelid. "I remember giving you the task to _keep an eye on the girl"_ Danzo remained silent for a few seconds

"Tell me what you know about the girl, Could there be another reason for Hiruzen to want to save her?" then he scoffed "besides she being the daughter of the fouth I mean."

Cat let out a sigh

"And remove your mask I want to see your face"

Cat stiffened for a second before controlling his own emotions. He slowly removed his mask revealing his face. Blond hair, sharp blue eyes framed by a handsome face. Danzo nodded.

"so, Tenma, what can you tell me?"

"Yes Danzo-sama," Tenma took a deep breath "Haruko Uzumaki seems to be somewhat a peculiar character, from what I can gather she already has some skills of a jonin while lacking some other are bellow even a genin" Danzo made a gesture with his hand indicating that he should explain himself.

"She is apparently using Hiraishin or something similar, yet when I saw her practicing Taijutsu her skills where bellow the Jinchuriki" Danzo frowned and Tenma couldn't stop but shiver "despite that she seems to have caught the eye of Jiraiya of the Sanin" Danzo lips tightened at the mention of Jiraiya, Tenma knew Danzo-sama detested the man.

"How?" Danzo askes

"I'm not sure" he lowered his head but added quickly "it seems there was an accident on their apartment while practicing a forbidden jutsu, for some reason Hokage-sama tasked my ANBU unit with the cleanup" Danzo closed his eyes as he scrathed the scar on his chin.

"There is something more" it wasn't a question, Tenma slid his hand into his flak jacket and retrieved the notebook. He handed it to Danzo-sama.

Tenma has been a shinobi under Danzo for almost all of his life, this was the first time he had seen the man shocked. What passed for shocked for Danzo would be a deadpan expression for anyone else. But Tenma could see it. The minuscule change in his facial muscles was he tried not to widen his eyes. And how hard his jaw's muscles were as he tried not to open his mouth.

Danzo put the notebook aside. Carefully. And then retrieved and empty scroll from his desk and started writing on it.

It took him more than an hour to finish writing. He rolled up the scroll and sealed it with a simple jutsu. He stood up and handed the scroll to Tenma

"Put on your mask, you have a mission" Tenma did as ordered and then accepted the scroll

"Yes, Danzo-sama"

Cat left the room to find a place where he could read his new orders in private

O=O=O=O

The more Naruto talked with this Jiraiya fellow the more he realized the man was a total pervert. If he wasn't ogling at the legs of Kunochi at least half his age, he was getting distracted by the porn magazines displayed on some stores.

Naruto didn't know if he should take this man seriously, but old-man Hokage had said that he was one of the strongest ninjas in the village if not all of the elemental nations.

"So that's how is it" he said as they turned a corner into what Naruto knew was Konoha's red light district "What do you think"

A few months ago he would have been thrilled to be allowed to enter this district, now…

"I don't think Haru-nee would like me to be here," he said

"Don't be dumb!" he said as he ruffled his hair, Naruto was surprised that he didn't get angry at the familiar gesture, just who was this man? "I'm talking about coming to the trip!" now they were walking away from the district and into a training ground that he had never visited before.

Jiraiya walked towards a trio of logs and leaned on one as he looked at Naruto. "I can show you a trick or two" then his face became serious "and we can get the person that can save your sister's life"

"Yes I'll go" the words came out rushed, Naruto didn't even think for a second to refuse. Jiraiya grinned at Naruto before walking to him and crouching in front of him so their eyes were level.

"Now strip your shirt off" Naruto reaction was quick as it was understandable. He took several steps back and looked for an escape route

"I knew You were a pervy-sage! But I didn't know you'd swing that way!"

"Shut up brat! I only like voluptuous women, not ugly scrawny kids like you!" he let out a sigh "I need to check— huh —your chakra pathways, so shutup and lift your shirt" there was more command in that last sentence than Naruto had ever heard in his life

"Yeah, yeah, Ok! but if you do something weird I'm telling Haru-nee once she wakes up" then he grinned "She'll kick your ass"

Jiraiya grinned back at Naruto "What? Wont you tell your girlfriend too?"

Naruto frowned for a moment "Girlfriend? I don't—"

"Yes, the tiny Hyuga you were making out with." Naruto face went beet red, Jiraiya grin became almost feral "I can't believe it, in the hospital! In the same room where your unconscious sister is" Jiraiya shook his head "kids these days have no respect"

"Shu-Shut up Hinata is not my girlfriend!" Naruto was breathing heavy, his ears red with either anger of embarrassment. More likely a healthy mix of both "She is my friend! My friend!"

"Then why were you making out—" Naruto's shirt hit Jiraiya right in the face

"WE. WERE. NOT. MAKING OUT." Naruto took a deep breath to calm himself "Hinata was… I don't know…" Jiraiya gave Naruto a sad smile before he spoke

"Hinata? You mean she is the clan heir of the Hyuga?" Naruto mentally stopped in his tracks,

"Yeah, why?" Jiraiya feral grin was back

"Good catch kid, marrying into money is a good option if you don't make it as a ninja" Naruto huffed and crossed his arms

"Shut up and hurry up old man, It is cold in here" for some reason, Jiraiya nodded with approval as if he had just passed a test

"Right, gather some chakra, just gather it, don't do anything with it." Naruto shrugged and made a ram seal as he pooled his chakra as he was shown in the first few weeks of the academy so many years ago

Jiraiya stared at his stomach and started murmuring something under his breath, Naruto could only catch a few stray words.

"mmm, seal … broken … It seems … it will be easier … Mi—to was a genius" he stood up "ok you can stop" then he crossed his arms for a moment and closed his eyes. For a minute he stood like that and then he dropped on the floor his legs crossed and retrieved a paintbrush, ink and empty scrolls and started writing.

Another minute went by before he finished writing. He rolled the scroll and gave it to Naruto

"As you've never been on a mission I thought it would be a good idea to get you some basic tools and gear" he gave Naruto an appraising look before looking towards Konoha's trading district. "you go to the shop's name next to the items and show them the scroll" he grinned "be sure to show them the stamp at the end— if they give you problems show them this" he retrieved something shiny from his pocket and gave it to Naruto

It was a silver coin with the Kanji for oil next to a small Konoha's symbol

"If they give you any trouble, then, show them this, but I'm sure you won't need that" he grinned at Naruto and ruffled his hair, Naruto swatted his hand playfully.

"I need to do some research, meet me tomorrow at the west entrance with everything in that list" with that he disappeared in a gust of leaves.

Naruto scratched his head as he looked at where Jiraiya had been just a few seconds ago

"Research, yeah right!" He walked towards the trading district to buy the gear on the scroll.

It was a long scroll.

O=O=O=O

Once Cat finally left the room, Danzo opened a drawer on his desk and retrieved an unusual looking book. It was a red leather covered tome. Five golden words in an unrecognizable language, the title probably, was at the top of the cover. A star in each corner. A rectangle more than half the height and width of the cover at his center. It was full of strange looking circular glyphs, more stars and another word. And just below it the only thing familiar. The number five.

Danzo opened the notebook Cat had procured from the Uzumaki's house and compared the scrip with the old book.

They matched.

 **That's for today boys and girls. I hope you enjoyed it. I'll try to get another chapter asap but I won't make any promises. Btw Witcher 3 is a really good game.**

 **Now, The Challenge: A chocolate cookie to the first who guesses which book Danzo has, It's pretty easy, to be honest.**


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